‘No place for Kohli-initiated shoulder barge', but Lord's Test wasn't like that – Atherton praises players for their ‘passionate intensity'
'… wouldn't spectators rather see players caring too much, rather than too little about playing Test cricket; caring too much, rather than too little, about playing for their country?' Atherton wrote on The Times.
He then brought up the Kohli example. 'There should be no place, for example, for the shoulder barge that Virat Kohli initiated in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne last Christmas, when he diverted from his path to deliberately walk into Sam Konstas. No one, of course, wants to see physical altercations on the field of play, or sustained nasty verbal abuse.
'But here there was none of that here, except two teams full of passionate intensity, commitment and skill. What a Test match they gave us.'
Kohli's shoulder barge occurred on the opening day of the Boxing Day Test last December. The ICC's Code of Conduct states: 'Any form of inappropriate physical contact is prohibited in cricket. Without limitation, players will breach this regulation if they deliberately, recklessly and/or negligently walk or run into or shoulder another player or umpire'.
Former captain Ricky Ponting had then laid the blame squarely on the Indian. 'Virat walked one whole pitch over to his right and instigated that confrontation,' he said on Seven. 'No doubt in my mind whatsoever.' Another former player and commentator Kerry o'Keefe echoed similar sentiments. 'Kohli has built his whole career on arrogance. Suddenly he identified that in a debutant, and he seemed to resent it. I think he's in trouble,' Keefe said on the Fox Cricket broadcast. Kohli was last sanctioned by the ICC in 2019 for another shoulder-barging incident with South Africa's Beuran Hendricks. Back then Kohli had admitted he was guilty. This time, he was docked 20 percent of his match fee.
Atherton noted how the two episodes were completely different. He also brought up another incident from the final-day chase at Lord's. When Ravindra Jadeja collided mid pitch with Brydon Carse.
'In a match where there was plenty of spice and niggle, tempers flared as Carse and Jadeja collided mid-pitch, although the impact was entirely accidental, after Jadeja had deflected the ball towards third man, with both players ball watching rather than minding each other's path. In this game, though, it has not taken much kindling to spark the flames and Stokes, if you please, moved in as peace-maker, standing between both players, as they exchanged pleasantries.' He also wrote how Jofra Archer reacted to dismissing Rishabh Pant. '…his off stump flattened. Archer offered some choice words as Pant walked off'.
Atherton summed up the Test thus: 'Six years ago to the day Lord's had witnessed the most remarkable finish to any cricket match, when the World Cup final was decided on a boundary countback after a Super Over. Now the game delivered an extraordinary finish again, with two of the protagonists from that day, Stokes and Jofra Archer, taking centre stage. In the context of Test cricket, it doesn't often get as tight as a 22-run winning margin.'
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