A heated debate has been taking over the internet after Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathew ‘timed-out’ dismissal in the match yesterday between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. The Bengal Tigers emerged victorious against the Sri Lankans with a thumping 3-wicket victory having successfully chased the target in 42.1 overs. Bangladesh’s Najmul Hossain Shanti played a brilliant knock of 90 runs and went ahead leading the team to victory. However, during the first innings, a rare showdown wreaked havoc in World Cup history.
What exactly happened?
In the 25th over of the first innings, after Sadeera Samarawickrama’s wicket, Angelo Mathew was next in line ready to approach the crease but unfortunately his helmet strap came off and he had to wait for a new replacement. According to the 2-minute rule which batsmen are obliged to follow while getting ready to receive the ball, Angelo Mathew couldn’t make it up at the moment with Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan’s decision to appeal for Mathew’s wicket. This decision brought a lot of uproar among the fans and the cricket world with the commentators expressing their viewpoints about the incident.
Commentators take on the dismissal
Cricketer turned commentators Michael Atherton and Matthew Haydon reckoned that it was not expected of Shakib Al Hasan and rather he could have withdrawn the appeal. Michael Atherton asserted “I don’t think the umpires were at fault because it is their job to uphold the laws of the game. But terrible from Shakib Al Hasan. It’s common sense. When you speak to former players, you often get a split opinion. Mankading, for example, sometimes a split opinion. My opinion is that the batters shouldn’t steal ground at the non-striker’s end, so I don’t have a problem with that. I have spoken to one former player, yet, who thinks Bangladesh were in the right to do what they did. So, I have great sympathy for Angelo Mathews and Sri Lanka. I thought it was very poor from Shakib.”
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