A nervy morning in Sydney for India could have eased further with Virat Kohli surviving a golden duck off Scott Boland soon after openers KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal returned to the pavilion.

Stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah, replacing Rohit Sharma who had “opted to rest”, had elected to bat first after winning the toss on an unusually green SCG pitch. A harmless half-volley flick saw Rahul perished before Yashasvi Jaiswal pulled one off Boland from debutant Beau Webster at the slip cordon.

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Steve Smith grabs Virat Kohli’s chance

Boland was almost two for two when Kohli got his first delivery from a long channel to Steve Smith in the slips. Smith appeared to almost catch the ball, lost his balance and passed it to the nearby defender who grabbed the rebound.

But replays showed that Smith had possibly taken advantage of the opportunity with his fingers not far below the ball according to television replays. The ball appeared to be bouncing off the grass after hitting Smith’s fingers before reaching the nearby fielder.

After multiple replays, third umpire Joel Wilson ruled in favor of India and Kohli, confirming that he could “clearly see the ball leaving the grass.”

7 Cricket’s Justin Langer thought otherwise about the decision.

“From what I’ve seen there, that makes it more obvious to me that it should have been removed. Steve Smith had his fingers (under the ball) and you could see he was throwing the ball up, it was brilliant what he did. He had his fingers under the ball, he deliberately moved it up and that’s ruled out in my opinion,” Langer said.

There were other Australian players who also felt that Kohli had to be handed over.