International Cricket Council (ICC) has hit legendary Indian batter Virat Kohli with a fine of 20 per cent match fee following his heated altercation with Australian debutant Sam Konstas on the opening day of the fourth Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test which is being played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Virat was also seen getting into a deliberate shoulder tackle with the young Aussie batter during the Boxing Day Test.
After Day 1 play, Virat attended the hearing with match referee Andy Pycroft where he admitted to the offence and was hit with 20 per cent of his match fee for the heated altercation episode with Sam Konstas. He has also been handed one demerit point.
Konstas gets into altercation with Kohli and Siraj
This all started when Konstas stepped out for the first time against Siraj but failed to make a connection, the Indian pacer was seen throwing a couple of words at the young debutant. Konstas later did the same thing and this time able to find a connection but could not score runs. Siraj was once again seen saying some words towards the youngsters while camera even showed Kohli giving a stare to him.
Konstas was not holding back in any manner, on the very next ball, he smashed a boundary and answered with both words and bat to Siraj. At the end of this over, Kohli and Konstats bumped into each other with clashing shoulders and were seen in an almost heated exchange with Usman Khawaja and umpires intervening before things could escalate further.
Konstas' stunning performance
The young debutant came out roaring at the MCG, he was not ready to be treated like a rookie and to make a statement he took on the biggest guys in the yard. First his audacious play against the most successful bowler of the series Jasprit Bumrah. He was not letting Bumrah's lethality get to him but instead did not let the premium speedster settle with his aggressive gameplay which saw some fearless scoops and step-out shots. He played a 60-run knock before getting dismissed by Ravindra Jadeja.