The South African captain, Dean Elgar, reexamined the ruling after umpire Ahsan Raza declared him not out. Ball-tracking indicated hitting during the umpire’s call, but Kohli managed to survive.
In the first session of the second Test at Newlands, Cape Town, Team India comfortably defeated South Africa, bowling them out for 55 runs. The Proteas scored their lowest score since 1933 thanks to a career-best 6/15 from right-arm seamer Mohammed Siraj, who was playing at his peak.
In response, captain Rohit Sharma’s crucial 39 (50) helped India surpass South Africa’s total with just one wicket remaining. He lost one to the slips against Nandre Burger, though, so he was unable to finish his innings. Upon his departure, Virat Kohli came to the crease and looked excellent from the start, hitting three boundaries in the first five balls.
In the 24th over of the Indian innings, the star batsman was hit on his pads by Marco Jansen and narrowly avoided a leg-before-threat situation.
Elgar baited Kohli by declaring that he survived a close one after the over ended. The previous captain of India responded with a quip, saying it was far higher than his controversial leg before wicket decision during the third Test match between the two sides at the same location in 2022. “This exceeded yours by a great margin. On the stump mic, Kohli was heard stating, “Way higher than what Ash did to you in 2022.”
View the incident by clicking this link:
Virat Kohli survives an umpire’s call.
Dean Elgar: “Oh you’ve survived a close one”
Virat Kohli: “Oh please this was much higher than what you got from Ash in 2021″😭😭😭pic.twitter.com/fxbHXxm5lQ
— MAGNUM (@magnum_vk18) January 3, 2024
India was astounded by Dean Elgar’s LBW review in 2022.
Notably, after 22 overs, South Africa was cruising at 70/1, requiring 212 runs to win the series by a margin of 2-1. When Elgar was trapped in front of the stumps by Ravichandran Ashwin, who entered the field to bowl the 23rd over, the on-field umpire lifted his finger. The ball tracking indicated that the ball had crossed the stumps, though, and the decision was promptly reviewed.
After watching the clip, Ashwin yelled out over the stump mic, “Find better ways to win SuperSport,” which left the entire Indian squad in shock. KL Rahul expressed his dissatisfaction by saying that the entire nation was against the Indian squad. Virat Kohli, the captain, chastised the presenter for always focusing on them when shining the ball.
After then, India was unable to recover and South Africa won the match by seven wickets and the series 2-1.