It's the fourth month since cricket has begun amid pandemic times and amid new rules, but it has always been hard to stop the usual habits, one of them being applying saliva on the ball. ICC has disallowed the use of saliva to shine cricket balls as a precautionary step amid the coronavirus pandemic. But on Monday, Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli almost...almost broke the no-saliva rule, but stopped.
It was in the third over of the IPL 2020 game against Delhi Capitals in Dubai. A full and wide delivery from Navdeep Saini in the third ball of the over saw Prithvi Shaw punching it hard towards the cover region. Kohli, the fielder stationed at that zone, stopped it immediately, and inadvertently, lamost applied saliva to the ball but stopped.
Taking a dig at Kohli's action, Delhi Capitals' official Twitter handle wrote, "Cheeku bhaiya, masti nahi"
Former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar too reacted to Kohli's act while also praising the impressive six that Shaw hit off Saini in the very next ball.
"What an incredible shot by @PrithviShaw there! A million dollar reaction by @imVkohli after almost applying saliva on the ball. Sometimes instincts takeover!" Sachin wrote.
Earlier in the evening, Kohli won the toss and opted to bowl first. Impressed by Chennai Super Kings' stunning chase of 179 against King XI Punjab, Kohli thought of following the blueprint.
RCB made two changes - Moeen Ali replaced Adam Zampa while Mohammed Siraj came in for Gurkeerat Mann. Delhi Capitals made one change - Axar Patel in place of Amit Mishra, who will miss the remainder of the season owing to a finger injury he incurred during the Sharjah game against Kolkata Knight Riders.
