File photo of Virat Kohli and Wasim Akram.© X (Twitter)
Star India batter Virat Kohli struck his 48th ODI century on Thursday as India defeated Bangladesh by seven wickets in their World Cup match in Pune. Kohli crossed the 100-run mark after hitting a six off Nasum Ahmed‘s delivery. It was the last action of the match as Kohli needed three runs to reach the milestone while India only required two runs to win. While Kohli did manage to score his century, umpire Richard Kettleborough’s decision of not calling Nasum’s delivery as wide caught the attention of everyone.
Nasum fired a delivery towards the leg stump. Kohli shuffled a bit towards the stumps and the wicket-keeper collected it on the leg side. However, Kettleborough smirked and decided not to call it a wide.
Kohli ended up hitting a six on the third delivery of the 42nd over as India won the match.
While analysing the match, former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram said that Kettleborough made a genuine mistake by not calling it a wide.
However, he slammed others for creating unnecessary noise, adding that people who have nothing to do, live off such ‘cr*p’.
“Looks like one of those genuine mistakes [by the umpire]. It was a wide ball for sure. [On the controversy] This is for people who have nothing to do, who live off this cr*p and then they can go nuts with it,” Akram said on A Sports.
Was that a wide? #RichardKettleborough‘s decision of not ruling it a wide ignites a debate among cricket fans. Let’s hear what our experts’ take is on the decision.#ASportsHD #ARYZAP #CWC23 #ThePavilion #ShoaibMalik #MoinKhan #FakhreAlam #MisbahulHaq #INDvBAN #WasimAkram pic.twitter.com/nnfYxMclrl
— ASports (@asportstvpk) October 19, 2023
After the match, Kohli said he was enjoying the “special feeling” of playing in a World Cup on home soil.
“I’ve had a few fifties in World Cups and haven’t converted them so I just wanted to finish the game off this time around,” Kohli said.
His 48th one-day international century left him just one shy of equalling India great Tendulkar’s all-time record of 49 hundreds at this level.
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