Virat Kohli fans' late charge storms ICC poll; netizens allege foul play at last-gasp loss

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday launched a Twitter poll asking fans to choose which captain was the best. The options included Indian team skipper Virat Kohli, former South African captain AB De Villiers, current captain of Australia’s women team Meg Lanning and former Pakistan captain and current PM Imran Khan. The poll showed that the averages of these players improved when they started leading their teams and thus, they are the true 'pacesetters' in modern-day cricket.

Virat Kohli vs Imran Khan

While at one point it seemed that Imran Khan was winning the poll, Virat Kohli overtook the former Pakistan all-rounder right at the end as Indian fans started trending the hashtag 'Vote for Kohli' when it seemed like the Indian skipper would lose. It even appeared as though Kohli had the win, but in what screenshots and reactions show as some form of glitch, there was a discrepancy in the pre-final and final counts and when the poll ended, after 536,346 votes were cast, Imran Khan won by 47.3% of votes and Kohli got 46.2% - a very big turnaround in the final seconds. AB De Villiers got 6% of the votes whereas Lanning ended up with 0.5%.

Indian fans say 'Vote for Kohli'

Several Indian netizens have complained and questioned ICC and Twitter on how Imran Khan won the poll as Virat Kohli was leading it a minute before it ended. "How did that change in the last second, Kohli was leading till 11.45 am with 47% and suddenly within 1 second it changed?" Johns, a user asked. Even screenshots shared by users show Kohli having a narrow lead over Imran Khan.

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The ICC tweets show that Virat Kohli’s average shot up to 73.88 from 51.29 in ODIs when he took over the captaincy. Imran Khan had a test average of 25.43 with the bat and 25.53 with the bowl in Tests. However, his Test average was 52.34 and bowling average was 20.26 when he was captaining. Meg Lanning's average also improved from 43.87 to 60.93 after she took over the captaincy. Villiers averaged 45.97 when he was not the captain but during the captaincy, the average rose to 63.94. 

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