Ricky Ponting BLASTS Virat Kohli for heated clash with Sam Konstas, demands match referee to take action
19-year-old Australia debutant Sam Konstas came up like an out of the syllabus question for the Indian team during the first day of the Boxing Day Test. The teenage batter dismantled Jasprit Bumrah and scored 16 runs in an over against the pacer. It is safe to say that the Men in Blue were rocked by the debutant.
Seeing this, Virat Kohli lost his cool and seemed to give Konstas a shoulder push during the first session of the day. The incident occurred when the players were crossing over after the 10th over. After taking a single off Mohammed Siraj’s last ball, Konstas took his gloves off and started to walk towards his batting partner Usman Khawaja at the other end.
Kohli picked up the ball and moved purposefully in Konstas’ direction. Both the players didn’t change their direction and this saw them bump into each other. The two then exchanged a few words with each other before the players and umpires intervened.
Reacting to the incident, former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting slammed Kohli for his actions, urging the match referees to take a good look.
“Have a look where Virat walks. Virat’s walked one whole pitch over to his right and instigated that confrontation. No doubt in my mind whatsoever,” Ponting said.
“I have no doubt that the umpires and the referee will have a good look at that. Fielders should be nowhere near the batsman at that stage. Every fieldsman on the ground knows where the batsmen will congregate and get together,” Ponting added.
“It looked to me that Konstas looked up really late; he wouldn’t even know anyone was in front of him. That man on-screen there (Kohli) might have a few questions to answer,” Ponting further added.
The incident didn’t seem to break Konstas’ concentration and he went on to smash the Indian bowlers even more before eventually getting dismissed by Ravindra Jadeja after scoring 60 runs off 65 deliveries.
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