Christchurch (New Zealand), March 1: Indian captain Virat Kohli was fired up on Day 2 of the second Test in Christchurch, animatedly celebrating the fall of New Zealand wickets during the first two sessions of the day. Another lower order fightback from the Kiwis led by Kyle Jamieson, who missed out on a fifty by just one run helped the hosts cut India's lead down to seven runs.
One particular instance of Kohli celebrating a wicket however seems to have stoked controversy on social media with users pointing out that the 31-year-old used an expletive towards the crowd.
The incident happened in the 44th over of the New Zealand innings when Shami dismissed Tom Latham, who had just crossed his half century. Latham decided to leave the ball that swung in to the left hander and took his off-stump.
In the replays, Kohli could be seen putting his finger to his lips in a motion to silence the crowd and saying something that social media users said included an expletive. There is yet to be any official word on the incident.
Kohli has been going through a rare lean patch with the bat in the series and in the tour in general. He has managed to score 50 just once in the tour and in the two-match Test series, he put up scores of 2,19, 3 and Sunday's score of 14.
Indian batsmen found it just as difficult to bat on the Christchurch pitch as their opponents and were reduced to 90/6 at the end of the day. Kohli, vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara were all dismissed for 3, 9 and 24 respectively. They lead by 97 runs with Hanuma Vihari and Rishabh Pant in the middle.