At pre-match media conference, Kohli looked prepared with his answer the moment one of the English scribes asked him about the footage that shows him applying saliva to the ball.
"I think it's just to take the focus away from the series to be honest. It happened in Australia when South Africa won the series. I'm surprised the issue of what I've been told came up in Rajkot but there was no mention until the result in Vizag," Kohli was polite but the sarcasm in his tone was not lost on anyone as he pointed what it meant to be poor losers.
However the British journalist was not happy and had a leading question as a follow-up.
"You doing what Du Plessis was doing?" the journalist probed further.
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"What was I doing?" was Kohli's polite counter-query. "If was doing something ICC would have spoken to me," he finished it off then and there.
Yesterday, India coach Anil Kumble had categorically rubbished the claims made by a South African broadcaster and picked by a British tabloid.
"We don't give wind to such stories and media can write whatever they want."
Incidentally, Faf du Plessis has appealed against a 100 percent fine on match fee.
Du Plessis played his finest Test knock as he scored a hundred amidst boos from the crowd on the first day of the Day/Night Test at Adelaide.
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