English
Birmingham: Irrespective of what sort of form Virat Kohli is in with the bat, his presence in the field in itself is worth quite a few thousand eyeballs for the broadcasters. He is never short on encouragement for the bowlers, nor has he ever been on to shy away from a little bit of a lip with the opposition. So, its was almost inevitable that the Edgbaston Test would somewhere see some drama and Kohli didn’t disappoint. Only problem was, he stood of against Jonny Bairstow, who himself seems to thrive on such challenges and the results were quite dramatic. No one is complaining though. Some such face-offs are what keep the spice bubbling in any contest.
Bairstow, batting on 13 during England’s first inning in the fifth and deciding Test of the series, had a little bit of an exchange with Kohli, where the former Indian captain told the Englishman to “shut up and bat”.
Bairstow was made to jump by a snorter from Mohammad Shami immediately after the little run-in and Kohli just couldn’t hide his delight at slips. He never was one to let it just pass.
The problem however is that taking on Bairstow is akin to waving a red rag at a bull, as the New Zealanders too had discovered.
The batter went on to clobber the next 87 runs off just 58 deliveries and reached another century, a testament to his sensational form. Even Kohli applauded.
The centurion went on the play down the incident later, but there is no denying that Kohli will bring this to the table invariably. However, all of his aggression on the field have not been able to translate into anything like a decent score in the Test but that is another story.
Sunday was quite a day for clashes in sporting events in England. At Silverstone, in the British Grand Prix, Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu miraculously escaping serious injury in a multi-car crash, right after the start of the race.
Wimbledon saw its fire too with Nick Kyrgios and Stefanos Tsitsipas clashing in an ill-tempered contest where both players were eventually fined for their behaviour.
Quite a Sunday. But a little heat is what keep sports alive a kicking and at least in Edgbaston and Wimbledon, it wasn’t something that the spectators would have really objected to. After all, all sport is a little gladiatorial and some about of clash of characters adds the drama and friction that keeps the heat alive.
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