Adelaide (PTI): Bangladesh wicketkeeper-batter Nurul Hasan has accused Indian maestro Virat Kohli of "fake fielding" which went unnoticed by on-field umpires and robbed his team of five potentially vital penalty runs in their T20 World Cup game.

Set a revised target of 151 in 16 overs after a brief spell of rain, Bangladesh fell short by five runs.

While his skipper Shakib Al Hasan conceded that they lost fair and square, Nurul, who kept Bangladesh in the game in the final over with a six and a four off Arshdeep Singh, seemed to criticise the on-field umpires after the game.

"Definitely, the wet outfield did have an impact when we restarted the game. But there was also a fake throw which could have got us five runs but we didn't even get that," Nurul said in Bengali at the mixed zone, indirectly accusing umpires Chris Brown and Marais Erasmus of overlooking the incident.

The incident that Nurul was referring to happened in the seventh over. A video recording showed that Arshdeep threw the ball from the deep and Kohli -- at point -- feigned as if he were relaying it at the non-striker's end.

A relay throw is one where the fielder closer to the track catches the ball from deep and throws it at the stumps.

The two batters -- Litton Das and Najmul Hossain Shanto -- didn't even look at Kohli and that's why Nurul's argument raises questions.

The ICC playing conditions rule 41.5, which pertains to unfair play, prohibits fielding team from "deliberate, distraction, deception or obstruction of the batter".

If the umpire finds any one has breached the rule, he can call it a dead ball and award five penalty runs.

While Nurul accused Kohli of fake fielding, he didn't factor in the terms "distraction and deception" part in the rule. Neither Shanto nor Litton was looking at Kohli, and hence, they were not distracted or deceived.

On the contrary, there is a possibility that Nurul might be sanctioned for criticising the match officials.

 

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New Delhi: The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India on Thursday slammed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for his reported remark that Pranab Mukherjee, when he was President, had said tribals would turn "anti-national" if there is no "ghar wapsi"Catholic Bishops.'

In a statement issued here, CBCI, a body of Catholic Bishops, referred to reports which said Bhagwat, at an event on Monday, claimed that Mukherjee, while he was President had appreciated ghar wapsi and told him that had it not been for the Sangh's work on reconversion, a section of Adivasis would have turned "anti-national".The CBCI called the report "shocking".

"Fabricated personal conversation being attributed to a former president of India and its posthumous publication with the vested interest of an organization with questionable credibility raises a grave issue of national importance," the CBCI claimed.

"Is it not the violent ghar wapsi program of VHP and other similar organizations, curtailing the exercise of freedom of conscience of economically deprived tribals, the real anti-national activity?" it asked.

'Ghar wapsi' is a term used by the RSS and affiliated organisations to refer to reconversion of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism, based on the belief that they were originally Hindus before converting to other religions.

The CBCI also questioned why Bhagwat did not speak about it while Mukherjee was alive.

"We, the 2.3 percent of Indian citizens who are Christians feel extremely hurt by such manipulated and motivated propaganda unleashed," it said.

In a post on X following the statement issued by CBCI, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said, "Speak up. This is a start!"

"Bishops body have issued a statement condemning remarks made by Dr Mohan Bhagwat and RSS for defaming the Christian community," he said.

O'Brien added that they should ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi more questions, including why Christmas Day has been turned into "Good Governance Day".

The TMC leader, in a blogpost earlier this month, had said "hard questions" must be asked to the government with regards to the Christian community, including why the FCRA has been 'weaponised', and why has Manipur been 'ignored'.