After registering a memorable win against Australia in the series opener of the four-match Test series in Adelaide, Team India celebrated the win quite joyfully, but there was one Indian player who was “pissed off” and it was Ishant Sharma, according to the skipper Virat Kohli.

Ishant finished the match with overall figures of 3 for 95, but it was the number ‘5’ in the no-ball column that spoiled his mood. While it didn’t cost India the match, the skipper said Ishant was conscious of the fact such mistakes could have turned the game Australia’s way.

Virat explained, “Ishant was the most pissed off right now. We were all celebrating but he was really, really angry with himself and we asked him why and he said, ‘I cannot afford to bowl a no-ball being a senior guy and having played so much cricket in the crunch situation when the umpire could have given that out’. So that could have been the difference at a more important stage in the series.”

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After being called for overstepping twice in the first innings, Ishant was having some issues with his run-up in the second. In the first over of Australia’s chase, Ishant bowled a lovely in-swinger that rapped Aaron Finch on the pads but the decision was overturned on review when the replay showed it was a no-ball. When the fast bowler had dismissed Finch in the first innings the same side-on slo-mo revealed he was very close to overstepping.

Ishant was called for another no-ball to Shaun Marsh in the 51st over and then, in a moment that could have been highly significant, Kumar Dharmasena called a no-ball immediately after another delivery that hit Nathan Lyon’s front pad and would have gone on to clip leg stump. Just before the start of that over, Channel Seven showed replays of two no-balls that weren’t called in Ishant’s previous over. It is unclear whether or not the third umpire Chris Gaffaney alerted Dharmasena; Ishant had certainly done enough to raise awareness on his own.

But despite the ubiquity of bowling a no-ball, Virat was confident Ishant would do the necessary job to solve the problem and did not believe there was a need to strictly police bowlers’ no-balls during practice in the nets.

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Explaining the same, Kohli said, “So, look, guys take ownership of those things but they can commit mistakes. As long as the attitude is right, we look to correct those mistakes. So this incident that’s happened, I am sure Ishant is going to be obsessed about not doing it again, just like how we improved our batting straight away in the second innings at the top of the order. It’s not a case of not wanting to talk about it, but they are unhappy themselves that they made a mistake at a crunch situation and, come to that situation again, they don’t want to do it. So that’s the most you can ask from any player playing for their country and that’s certainly the right attitude to have.”