Steve Smith called it a “brain fade.” Virat Kohli stopped just short of calling it outright cheating.
In a contest which at times threatened to match the notoriety seen in Sydney Test in 2008 — where India’s captain Anil Kumble famously said “Only one team was playing with the spirit of the game” — Smith’s dismissal proved the biggest flashpoint.
After a discussion with non-striker Peter Handscomb, Smith looked towards the Australian dressing room. Immediately umpire Nigel Llong walked down to remonstrate with Smith. Kohli rushed over but was asked to move away.
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“I saw that happening two times when I was batting,” said Kohli later. “I pointed out to the umpire that I’ve seen their players looking upstairs for confirmation. We also told the match referee that they’ve been doing that for the last three days and this had to stop. That’s why the umpire was at him. When he turned back, the umpire knew exactly what was going on.”
After Llong’s intervention, Smith walked and even in the event of him not doing so, he would probably have been denied a review, for, according to the DRS rulebook, “If the umpires believe that the captain or batsman has received direct or indirect input emanating other than from the players on the field, then they may at their discretion decline the request for the Player Review. In particular, signals from the dressing room must not be given.”
“I was looking at our boys,” admitted Smith. “So shouldn’t have done that. A bit of brain fade. I looked down to Handscomb and he said, ‘Look out there’. Then I just turned around and said, ‘What do you reckon?’ Shouldn’t have done that.”
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Even as Smith said that it was the only such instance, Kohli would have none it.
“Honestly, if someone makes a mistake while batting, that’s a brain fade. The way I left the ball in Pune ... that was a brain fade. But if something is going on for three days, that’s not a brain fade, as simple as that.
“There’s a line you don’t cross on the cricket field. Sledging and playing against the opponents is different, but… I don’t want to mention the word, but it falls in that bracket. I would never do something like that.”
Was that word “cheating,” he was asked by an Australian scribe.
“I didn’t say that. You did,” Kohli retorted.
The official BCCI twitter handle too, for the second day running, waded in, asking if DRS meant “Dressing room review system?”
Broad’s take
Match referee Chris Broad, reportedly told The Daily Telegraph (Australia) after play, that the only time the umpires were aware of Australians looking up to the dressing room was the Smith incident.
Kohli, on the contrary, had said that he had seen the Australians doing it at least twice before that.