ICC Cricket World Cup 2023: In the match between India and Bangladesh, Virat Kohli led Team India to victory by scoring a brilliant century. In the 42nd over of this match, the Indian team was very close to victory, and Virat Kohli needed only 3 runs to complete his century. At that time, Bangladesh spin bowler Nasum Ahmed bowled the very first ball of the 42nd over wide on the leg side.
Kohli was surprised to see this wide and started looking towards Nasum, but umpire Richard Kettleroe did not declare that ball wide. Because of this Kohli got a chance to score a century. After that, Virat played another dot ball and by hitting a six on the third ball, he gave victory to Team India and also completed his 48th century. A separate debate has erupted on social media over Virat Kohli’s century and Richard Kettlero not giving wides. Some people say that the umpire deliberately gave a wrong decision and gave Kohli a chance to complete his century. Let us tell you about this rule of umpire and wide.
What does Wide’s law say?
According to rule 22.4 of MCC, if the batsman is moving while throwing the ball, then wide is not given in that case. Although, Kohli did not move during that ball, but perhaps the umpire felt that Kohli was moving, hence he would not have given that ball wide. So, this could just be a mistake.
Talking about Richard Kettlero, he is a very popular umpire. Richard has also played first class cricket for England. Apart from this, if we talk about umpiring career, Richard has so far umpired in 112 Test matches, 155 ODIs and 51 T20 matches. Richard has umpired in many ICC tournaments. When Dhoni was run out in Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s last international match i.e. the semi-finals of the World Cup 2019, Richard was the leg umpire.