Kohli booed by Australian fans; Head, Ponting critical of crowd behaviour
Adelaide, Dec 8 : Virat Kohli was booed by a small section of the Adelaide Oval crowd when he stepped out to bat in the second innings against Australia, an act that has been criticised by rival batsman Travis Head and former skipper Ricky Ponting.
Kohli came out to bat after the fall of opener K L Rahul and was jeered by a small group of Australian fans. He received similar boos when he had headed to bat on the opening day.
Travis Head, however, wasn't impressed by the behaviour of the crowd.
"He's a pretty good player and probably doesn't deserve to be booed but that's how it is. It's probably not needed but that's the crowd," he said.
When Jasprit Bumrah was asked about the booing, he said that the Indian team likes to ignore such situations.
"I don't think all these things are important to us because for us, what happens in that circle is important. Everything else, we can't control and it is not in our hands. If they want to, they can do whatever they want. As long as we are doing well, we are happy," he said.
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting, who was also booed by sections of English crowd on a few occasions during the 2009 Ashes tour, also expressed his displeasure at seeing the action by the fans.
"I don't like seeing it at all," Ponting told cricket.com.au after Kohli scored 34 runs in a 104-ball innings before being removed by spinner Nathan Lyon just before the draw of stumps.
"It didn't worry me as a player when it happened in England a couple times. You've almost got to accept it as acknowledgement for what you've done in the game. But I'd rather not see that happen at all.
"It'll be water off a duck's back (for Kohli), I'm sure. He's probably had worse things happen to him on a cricket field, I would have thought, than getting booed by a couple of spectators as he walks on."
In the past, there have been many instances of crowd booing Kohli. In fact, the India skipper was booed by Edgbaston crowd during the first Test against England this year.
During his first tour to Australia in 2011/12, Kohli faced the wrath of the crowd at the Sydney cricket ground. He was fined 50 per cent match fee after he showed his middle finger to the crowd.
He was also booed by an all-Indian crowd at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai during an IPL match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Mumbai Indians.
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Confident we are going to win Kerala: Shashi Tharoor
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday expressed confidence in the victory of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, saying the Congress-led alliance will win more than 75 seats out of the total 140 in the state.
Tharoor, who hails from Kerala, said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls, most of which predicted a victory for the UDF that has been out of power for 10 years in the state.
"We have been on the ground. I have campaigned in 59 constituencies across 12 districts out of 14. I was very confident we are going to win.
"Everything that I have picked up from not just my party colleagues and workers but also from other observers, media and others have always convinced me that we were going to score a comfortable win of above 75 seats. And all the (exit) polls have confirmed the same thing," he told reporters here.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls but in general he was not a big fan of exit polls in India.
"Because ours is not purely a homogenous society. We have to take into account gender issue, caste issue, class issue, regional disparities. You never get a convincingly large enough sample to give an accurate poll and now there is the additional complication that we have heard about in West Bengal this year that many people are unwilling to answer the questions of the pollsters," he said.
The Congress leader said normally, it used to be below 10 per cent that people said that they would not answer.
"Even if you are a reputable exit pollster, in Bengal, one polling company has said 60 per cent of people refused to answer. So, what is the worth of a poll where 60 per cent of your respondents have not answered," he said.
Several exit polls on Wednesday predicted a comeback by the Congress-led UDF in Kerala after 10 years, dethroning the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Polling for the 140-member Kerala assembly was held on April 9. Results of assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Puducherry, besides Kerala, will be announced on May 4.
