Kohli's cheeky dig at Handscomb over contentious catch

Indian captain Virat Kohli has lit the fuse for a potentially fiery day four in Perth with a cheeky reference to his controversial first innings dismissal.

Drama erupted on day three when Kohli was given out on 123 runs after a questionable catch from Australia’s Peter Handscomb.

The gifted right-hander was out edging to Pat Cummins in the penultimate over of the session, with the dismissal upheld after third umpire Nigel Llong agonised over every angle of Handscomb’s slips catch to see whether it had carried.

Replays appeared to show Handscomb’s fingers centimetres off the grass and underneath the ball as it nestled into his hands.

There was not enough conclusive evidence to suggest the ball had made contact with the ground first, meaning the original decision stood.

Kohli was visibly furious with the ruling, as were fans who flooded social media to protest the wicket.

The wicket was clearly still in the Indian captain’s mind before the start of the fourth day, as Kohli’s joke in the warm-up demonstrated.

Kohli was practicing some slips fielding when he dropped a chance and fell backwards.

Showing his sense of humour though, the 30-year-old bounced back off the grass and grabbed the ball, claiming what obviously wasn’t a clean catch.

Kohli and Paine get animated at stumps on day three

Stump microphones have picked up a heated exchange between Tim Paine and Virat Kohli late on day three of the second Test.

Having battled through the better part of eight days of intense Test cricket in relatively cordial fashion, the captains clashed verbally as tensions bubbled in Perth on Sunday.

Kohli and teammates went up vociferously for a caught-behind appeal in the final over, desperate to dismiss Paine.

It was turned down and India had no interest in reviewing but stump microphones picked up Kohli having a dig at his counterpart.

“If he messes it up, it’s 2-0,” Kohli said, referencing the series lead he is so determined to take at Optus Stadium.

Paine replied “you’ve got to bat first, big head”.

It was a reasonably tame exchange but things appeared to become more heated at the end of play, when Australia reached 4-132 to boast a 175-run lead.

With agencies