Virat Kohli clears air on late DRS appeal against Wade, says they 'were still discussing'

Indian skipper Virat Kohli revealed the reason behind his late DRS call against Matthew Wade in the third and final T20I at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Tuesday. When Kohli had asked for a DRS (Decision Review System) in order to get the Australian batsman's leg before wicket reviewed, it was not approved due to a late call. 

Nonetheless, the batting sensation said that the replay was played before 15 seconds.

'That LBW': Virat Kohli

"Yeah that LBW was is in a strange manner because we were still discussing whether the ball was going down or not and within 15 seconds the replay was on screen," Kohli said during a virtual press conference.

"And we decided to go for the review but the umpire said nothing can be done. These mistakes shouldn't be done at the highest level and in a very important game this could be very costly," he added.

When Matthew Wade got a lifeline

The incident took place during the 11th over of the first innings. It so happened that the left-handed batsman was caught plumb in front of the wicket by yorker specialist Natarajan and made an LBW appeal instantly but, the on-field umpire was not at all convinced and even he did not receive much support from his team-mates either with regards to appealing. Even stumper KL Rahul had no clue where the ball had pitched and so did Virat who was standing at the boundary. 

The Indian captain decided to get the decision reviewed but it was turned down since the review was supposedly taken after the 15-second timeframe as the opening batsman got a much-needed lifeline. The southpaw did make the Indians pay after their captain had unknowingly suffered a brain-fade moment on the field by making his bat do the talking. He scored a quickfire 53-ball 80 at a strike rate of nearly 151 including seven boundaries and a couple of maximums as the Aussies posted 186/5 in their 20 overs.

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Australia manage a consolation win

Chasing a challenging target of 187, India had lost the big wicket of KL Rahul without troubling the scorers after which Virat and Shikhar Dhawan carried out the rescue act with a 74-run second-wicket stand before the latter was dismissed for a quickfire 28.
The Indian captain played a few delightful strokes by hitting the Australian bowlers to all parts of the ground. When the visitors had lost their top-order with just 100 runs on the board, it was the captain who led the team from the front and kept them in the hunt in this challenging run chase.

However, with the asking rate getting steeper, the batting megastar had to play big shots regularly and in the end perished just 15 runs short of what would have been his maiden ton in the shortest format. His stay at the crease was cut short courtesy of a brilliant catch from Sams himself at deep point off Andrew Tye in the penultimate over.

The number three batsman walked back for a brilliant 61-ball 85 at a strike rate of 139.34 including four boundaries and three maximums. Kohli's wicket proved to be the turning point as the lower order could not offer much resistance and the visitors were restricted to 174/7 in their 20 overs.

The Aussies managed to salvage pride by as they won the dead-rubber contest by 12 runs.

(With ANI Inputs)

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