Explained: Why Virat Kohli was given out and the law behind it

NEW DELHI: Kolkata Knight Riders’ thrilling one-run win against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Eden Gardens on Sunday will also be remembered for the controversial dismissal of Virat Kohli.
Chasing 223, RCB‘s star batsman and former captain Virat Kohli was adjudged out on the first ball of the third over when he was caught by surprise by a full toss from Harshit Rana and ended up edging a simple return catch.
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As the KKR players celebrated the prized wicket and the on-field umpire raised his finger, Virat went for the review as he thought the ball was a waist high full-toss and hence a no-ball.
But the replays showed that as it was a slower ball, it dipped as it reached Kohli and more importantly the side angles showed that he was standing outside the crease.
Ball-tracking showed that the ball would have been below the waist had Kohli been in his normal batting stance inside the batting crease.
An infuriated Virat started to walk off the field shaking his head and came back to have quite a few angry words with the umpires.
So was Kohli out or not?
According to the laws of the game by MCC, law 41.7.1 clearly states, “Any delivery, which passes or would have passed, without pitching, above waist height of the striker standing upright at the popping crease, is unfair. Whenever such a delivery is bowled, the umpire shall call and signal No ball.”
Here the most important point is that Virat was standing outside the crease and hence according to the third umpire after seeing ball-tracking the ball that was dipping as it was a slower one, would have been below the waist had Kohli been in his normal stance inside the batting crease.
RCB captain Faf du Plessis said after the match, “It was crazy, rules are rules, Virat and myself thought that the ball was higher than the waist, I guess they measured from the popping crease, one team thinks it’s high, the other doesn’t. That’s how the game goes at times.”