Australia’s latest debutant Sam Konstas has shown in his short span in international cricket that he is an entertaining character. Konstas made a dream debut at the MCG against India with a scintillating fifty.
But the road towards the fifty was eventful for him as he was involved in a shoulder confrontation with India’s senior cricketer Virat Kohli. The incident followed some heated exchanges between the two of them.
Recently, Konstas was seen doing the mimicry of Kohli’s shoulder barge during the second day of the Melbourne Test. He gathered the crowd’s attention when he started moving his shoulder. The home crowd was up on its feet after seeing Konstas and backed him for such actions.
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Watch: Sam Konstas makes fun of Virat Kohli
The Australian crowd and public have been highly hostile to Virat Kohli after his shoulder collision with Sam Konstas. The Australian media even used words like ‘bully’ and ‘clown’ for the former India captain.
The incident between Virat Kohli and Sam Konstas
Virat Kohli and Sam Konstas were involved in a shoulder collision during the first day of the Boxing Day Test. After the tenth over of Australia’s innings, Kohli seemed to change his direction suddenly and barged his shoulders into Konstas.
Kohli turned around as the two players shared a few verbal volleys with each other. Neither of them backed down as Usman Khawaja, Konstas’ opening partner, had to step in and separate the two of them.
After the end of the day, ICC found Virat Kohli guilty of the offence and fined him 20 percent of his match fees. Kohli accepted the offence and as a result, no further hearing was needed.
However, Konstas seemed unfazed by the occasion and continued to attack the Indian bowlers. He played some audacious shots off India’s premier fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah and put him under pressure with scoops and reverse scoops. The youngster scored a fiery 60 off 65 balls in his maiden Test innings.
Sam Konstas gave Australia a great start
Meanwhile, Australia raced off to a quickfire start because of Sam Konstas’ excellent knock at the top. Usman Khawaja gave him good company with a fine half-century of his own. Marnus Labuschagne failed to convert another start into a big one and was dismissed for a well-made 72.
But the start of the show was Steve Smith, who smashed 140 off 197 balls with 13 fours and 3 sixes. Smith marched along nicely with the tailenders to take Australia to a strong first innings total of 474. Bumrah was the pick of the bowlers for India with 4-99.
In reply, Australian bowlers were excellent and picked up Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul cheaply. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli brought the innings on track with a fine partnership of 102 runs. However, Jaiswal’s wicket opened the doors for Australia as India lost 3-6 in quick succession.
Allrounders Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar turned out to be the unlikely stars of the third day for India as both were going along nicely as they pushed India past the follow-on mark.