IPL 2024: Reece Topley shares his take on Virat Kohli's controversial dismissal during KKR vs RCB clash

Virat Kohli-starrer Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) lost a thriller to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in match 36 of the IPL 2024 edition, on Sunday (April 21) at the iconic Eden Gardens, Kolkata. KKR rode on captain Shreyas Iyer's 50 (36), Phil Salt's 14-ball 48, Andre Russell's 27 (20), Ramandeep Singh's 24* (9) and cameos from Rinku Singh and Venkatesh Iyer to post a mammoth 222/6, after being asked to bat first.In reply, Faf du Plessis & Co. RCB were in the hunt due to Will Jacks' 55 (32) and Rajat Patidar's 52 (23) and vital knocks from Dinesh Karthik (18-ball 25) and Karn Sharma (7-ball 20) but fell short after being dismissed for 221 on the final ball.

RCB needed 3 off the last ball but Mohammed Siraj and Lockie Ferguson managed just one run. Thus, RCB fell short by a run and lost their sixth game on the trot. Talking about Kohli, he started the run-chase on a promising note but was dismissed for a 7-ball 18 in a controversial manner. The former RCB captain was given caught out after he got a leading edge against a waist-high full toss by Harshit Rana, in the third over. The on-field umpires took the decision to the third umpirefor a referraltocheck for the height of the full toss. Eventually, Kohli was adjudged out as the right-hander was out of his crease and connected the ball marginally above waist height. Had he been inside his crease, the ball would have dipped below. Hence, he was asked to make the long walk back to the pavilion. As a result, Kohli was livid with the decision and was fuming while walking back to the dugout.

'In the RCB camp, we feel like it's a grey area'

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Kohli's dismissal made a lot of noise and RCB pacer Reece Topley, not part of the playing XI vs KKR, shared a bizarre take on the controversial call. He opined that no onethought that something like this could happenas the measurements are taken when batters are standing at their crease.

At the post-match press conference, Topley said, "Obviously, those measurements are brought in to get rid of a grey area, and then you have something today that no one had thought of."

Topley further opined, "He (Kohli) was obviously out of his crease and the ball was over his hip high, then obviously he was out of his crease down the wicket. The measurement was taken with Virat inside the crease so it's a bit of a grey area. Obviously, it's a fine margin and would be spoken about in a game where the victory margin is just one run."

He stated, "I can throw this back to you saying what was your opinion. It's tough...two people can have two different opinions. In our camp, we feel like it's a grey area, like uncharted territory, so probably you need more clarifications in the rules."

Talking about RCB's poor run, having now lost seven games out of eight, the Englishman added, "It's not absolute. We go about every game like we are going to win it and try the best of ourselves. We can finish with seven games and look back and say it was a respectful campaign."

RCB are practically out of the IPL 2024 playoffs race but have a slim chancemathematically. They next face third-placed Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Thursday (April 25) in Hyderabad.