Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli was reprimanded for breaching the Indian Premier League's (IPL) Code of Conduct during his team's match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Wednesday.
"Kohli admitted to the Level 1 offence 2.2 of the IPL's Code of Conduct. For Level 1 breaches of the Code of Conduct, the Match Referee's decision is final and binding," read a statement from IPL.
RCB defeated SRH by six runs in a thrilling encounter. David Warner's half-century had put SRH on course for a victory but Shahbaz Ahmed ran through their middle order to help RCB register a second consecutive win of the tournament.
SRH won the toss and asked RCB to bat first. Glenn Maxwell scored a gutsy half-century to ensure that RCB, despite losing a flurry of wickets in the second half of their innings, set up a 150-run target.
Kohli scored 33 runs and was bagged by Jason Holder in the 13th over of the innings. Vijay Shankar caught him in the outfield. Kohli, while leaving the ground, was seen hitting the boundary cushion with his bat as well as a chair placed by the dugout following his dismissal.
SRH was right on track for a win with Warner and Manish Pandey stitching an 83-run stand for the second wicket but the side lost the plot in the middle overs. SRH collapsed from 96/1 to 123/6 within 4.4 overs and managed to reach 143/9 in their allotted 20 overs. Shahbaz picked three key wickets and delivered when RCB needed him the most.
