Aus vs Ind, BGT – Virat Kohli fined 20% of match fees after altercation with Sam Konstas

On By Littum

Virat Kohli has been fined 20% of his match fees and awarded a demerit point following his heated altercation with Australia’s 19-year-old debutant Sam Konstas during the fourth Test at the MCG. The incident occurred after the tenth over in the morning when Kohli and Konstas collided shoulders while moving across the track between the overs.

Both players immediately looked back after a heated exchange before Konstas’ opening partner Usman Khawaja and referee Michael Gough stepped in to break up the altercation.

Kohli was sanctioned for breaching Level 1 of the ICC Code of Conduct, which relates to “improper physical contact with a player, player support staff, umpire, match referee or any other person (including a spectator during an international match)”. No formal hearing was held .required as Kohli accepted the sanctions.

Replays that emerged later in the session showed that Konstas had turned from the crease after the last ball of the tenth over and headed straight for the other end while looking at his gloves, whereas Kohli – while tossing the ball in hand – looked straight ahead and went all the way out of bounds straight towards Konstas and bumped into him.

“I think the emotions got to both of us,” Konstas later said Channel 7 in the second session. “I wasn’t quite aware of it; I was making my gloves so (there was) a bit of a shoulder charge. But that happens in cricket.”

“Look at where Virat is going,” noted former Australian captain Ricky Ponting on commentary Channel 7 while watching the replay of the event. “Virat has gone a full space to his right and instigated that confrontation. No doubt in my mind, at all.”

Speaking to Star Sports late in the day, former India coach Ravi Shastri said what Kohli did was “unnecessary”.

“When you see it, it’s not necessary at that point,” he said. “I think Virat will realize that later, with the stature he has in the game, he has been captaining the side for many, many years. In the heat of the moment, things happen. But on reflection, I would say that it was unnecessary. You don’t want to see things like that, there’s a line, you don’t want to cross that line.”

Konstas made his Test debut with a stunning half-century off just 52 balls, taking on Jasprit Bumrah, the best bowler of the series, who had dismissed Nathan McSweeney four times in six innings in the first three Tests. Konstas replaced McSweeney for this Test and struggled to 5 off 21 after being beaten several times before moving to 27 off 38 at the time of the row with Kohli.

By then, Konstas had reverse-scooped Bumrah for a six over slip, who had followed a more straightforward scoop that had fetched him four runs after moving across and flicking the ball over wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.

Konstas finished on 60 off 65 balls with six fours and two sixes, after scoring 34 from 33 against Bumrah and 20 from 19 from Mohammed Siraj.

Tests between India and Australia have been high-intensity and known to create such altercations and controversies, especially involving Kohli. He once clashed – when he was captain – for an altercation with opposing captain Tim Paine in 2018-19, and had a duel with Mitchell Johnson while scoring a stunning century in Adelaide in 2014.