Virat Kohli was right — it wasn’t just what the fans felt, but what experts believed too. And this was regarding the dismissal of Rajat Patidar on Thursday, which sparked chaos in the Royal Challengers Bengaluru camp during their game against the Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Former India cricketers spoke in unison to question the legality of Jason Holder’s stunning catch.
The incident occurred in the first innings when Patidar went for a pull shot against a short delivery from Arshad Khan, only to splice the ball into the air. Holder charged in from deep backward point, avoided a collision with Kagiso Rabada, and completed a fine low catch. But the RCB camp was far from convinced that it was a legal dismissal.
The TV umpire reviewed the catch and quickly ruled Patidar out. The batter lingered near the boundary rope as agitated RCB players surrounded the reserve umpire. Kohli, in particular, was visibly unhappy with the call and was seen in an animated discussion with the match official, alongside head coach Andy Flower. From their perspective, the ball had touched the ground as Holder slid while completing the catch. Former cricketers Aakash Chopra, Irfan Pathan, and Dodda Ganesh echoed the same view.
Taking to X, Aakash posted a video of the catch and cited Law 33 of the MCC Laws of Cricket to argue that Patidar was not out. Clause 33.3 states: “The act of making a catch shall start from the time when the ball first comes into contact with a fielder’s person and shall end when a fielder obtains complete control over both the ball and his/her own movement.” Based on this, Aakash suggested that Patidar was wrongly given out, as Holder was not fully in control while sliding, during which the ball appeared to touch the ground.
“My interpretation is that, and I know umpires will know better, he was in control when he took the catch, but when he dived and then slid, he was not exactly in control. When you stop, after that if you take the help of the ball to stand up, the catch will still count in my opinion, because the catch is completed by then. But that is not the case when you are sliding. And I felt — based on the visuals we all saw — the ball touched the ground. So maybe he was not out, but he was given out,” he said.
Ganesh was more critical of the umpiring, blaming the decision for disrupting RCB’s momentum. “In this day and age, decisions like Patidar’s shouldn’t happen with so much technology available. It was clearly grassed. How umpires thought otherwise is still a million-dollar question. Spoiled RCB’s momentum altogether,” he posted.
Pathan, on the other hand, simply wrote: “Not out.”
RCB had started strongly, with Kohli smashing five boundaries in a row against Rabada before the pacer bounced back with his wicket in the next over, triggering a collapse. From 71/2 after seven overs, RCB slipped to 96/6 in 10.3 overs, losing Rajat Patidar (19), Jitesh Sharma (1), Tim David (9), and Krunal Pandya (4). Left-arm pacer Arshad Khan then wrapped up the innings, finishing with figures of 3/22.
