Amit Mishra caught applying the saliva before the Virat Kohli dismissal

The Lucknow Super Giants wristspinner got the India and RCB batting great out caught off a ball that he tried shining via a banned manner as per ICC regulations. 
 By Kashish Chadha Apr 11, 2023, 09:45 IST
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Amit Mishra's encouraging comeback trail in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 seems to have hit the controversy wall as he was caught applying saliva on the ball just before dismissing Indian batting great Virat Kohli on Monday (April 10). 

The wily Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) wristspinner was seen clearly taking the saliva from his mouth and applying it on the ball, like it was done previously, to keep the ball shining, not realising that he is breaching one important ICC Covid-19 regulation that has come into being for the players' health and safety.

Mishra got the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) opening batter out caught off 61 off the 44th ball in his innings. But that was after, two balls before, having applied saliva on the white ball held in hand. The experienced spinner had applied the natural substance at the start of the 12th over to try and keep it shining white. 

That, however, as is known is a breach of ICC's Covid laws. The governing body had initially imposed a temporary ban on applying saliva to the ball, the intention was to completely nullify any potential viral spread. But with sweat allowed, the ICC deemed it fit to extend the ban to life-term proportion even as the world stood at some ease with the restrictions. 

Did Mishra get Kohli out of illegal ball?

With this in mind, there are doubts being raised if Amit Mishra dismissed Virat Kohli of an illegal ball. At least it was confirmed that he applied saliva on it before sending it down against the RCB and Indian modern-day legend and got him dismissed with it. 

The incident is from the third ball of the 12th over in the RCB first-innings batting effort. It wasn't initially known that Mishra had picked out some saliva off his tongue and applied it to the ball.

Watch: Epic RCB fail! Harshal's missed non-striker run out and Karthik's fumble 

The details of the matter were revealed through a clip going viral on Twitter, wherein Mishra can be seen trying to shine the ball in a banned manner. 


The umpires didn't catch it at the time, but it would've been interesting to see whether they would've called it a no-ball in case they did. In such a scenario, the ball would've been changed one ball prior to the Kohli dismissal. 


 

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