Early in New Zealand’s chase of 132, an India fielder was warned for calling for ‘two’ runs after Tom Latham played a shot, with umpire Richard Kettleborough not too impressed.
The incident occurred during the second ball of the fourth over of New Zealand’s innings, when Latham nurdled one down to fine leg. The batsmen looked set to take a single, when the call for ‘two’ was heard from one of the fielders. The potential of such a call to cause a mix up between the batsmen spurred umpire Kettleborough to make his disapproval known.
Law 41.5 of the MCC pertaining to ‘deliberate distraction, deception or obstruction of batsman’ states that it is “unfair for any fielder wilfully to attempt, by word or action, to distract, deceive or obstruct either batsman after the striker has received the ball.”
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India were warned for fake calling by umpire Kettleborough[/caption]
If that law was enforced, the batting side would have been awarded five penalty runs, and the incident would then be reported to the match referee. However, it appears as though Kettleborough let the Indians off with an unofficial warning in this instance.
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This isn’t the first time in this Test that India’s behaviour on the field has come under scrutiny. On the second day, Virat Kohli appeared to mouth the words ‘shut the f*** up’ in direction of the audience after Tom Latham was clean bowled shouldering arms to one from Mohammed Shami.
As it turned out, Latham and Tom Blundell put on 103 runs for the first wicket, both scoring fifties, to set up New Zealand’s seven-wicket win to take the series 2-0. India suffered their first series-loss in the World Test Championship, after they had won each of their first seven Tests last year.
