KOHLI ACCUSES AUSSIES OF CHEATING

VIrAT KoHLI all but accused Australia of cheating after India squared their four-Test series in thrilling fashion in Bangalore.

Set 188 to take a shock 2-0 lead, the Australians were skittled for 112, with off- spinner ravichandran Ashwin — England’s destroyer before Christmas — taking six for 41.

But tempers frayed throughout the Test, which ended with Indian captain Kohli suggesting Australia’s players had been looking up towards their dressing room for advice on whether to use the decision review system.

Australia captain Steve Smith admitted doing just that after being given out lbw for 28 as his side collapsed, but umpire Nigel Llong intervened, and Smith later called his behaviour a ‘brain fade’.

Kohli, though, claimed it had happened more than once. ‘If something is going on for three days, then that’s not a brain fade, as simple as that,’ he said.

‘This has to stop, because there’s a line that you don’t cross on the cricket field. I don’t want to mention the word, but it falls in that bracket. I would never do something like that on the cricket field.’

Asked if that word was ‘cheating’, he replied: ‘I didn’t say that, you did.’

Despite levelling the series, the Indians were so incensed at what they regarded as Australia’s underhand behaviour that their official Twitter feed suggested DrS stood for ‘dressing-room review system’.

But Smith tried to play down the tension. ‘There’s always emotion flying around when Australia play India, and we get a little bit of white-line fever every now and then. As long as it’s kept on the field it’s all good.’ ForMEr England batsman Kevin pietersen will play for Surrey in this year’s NatWest T20 Blast after pulling out of the Caribbean premier League.