Bangladesh and Sri Lankan cricket teams haven’t shared a great relationship over the last few years. The two sides have played a few acrimonious games and one such game was witnessed during the 2023 ODI World Cup in New Delhi. The match will go down in history when Angelo Mathews became the first-ever batter to be given time out in an ODI game.
The incident happened in the second ball of the 25th over of the game. Former Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews came out to bat at the fall of Sadeera Samarawickrama. The moment Mathews came out to bat there was some problem with his helmet. This caused a slight delay with skipper Shakib Al Hasan getting ready to bowl.
Sri Lanka’s most experienced player was seen discussing with the umpire the issue he had with his helmet’s strap. Shakib Al Hasan decided to use this as a chance to appeal against Mathews as the batter was given timed out. This left everyone on the ground and the Sri Lankan dugout stunned and confused.
Angelo Mathews could be seen having a few tense words with the umpire and the Bangladeshi players. It didn’t help the cause as Mathews was back to the hut without facing a ball. The veteran star was visibly frustrated as he threw down his helmet as he walked off the park.
Bangladesh wins a controversial encounter.
Skipper Kusal Mendis batted first and saw his post 279 on the board being bowled out with three balls left to play. When the wicket of Mathews fell the Lanks were placed at 135/5 in the 25th over. Pathum Nissanka and Sadeera Samarawickrama scored 41 each.
Charith Asalanka was the best batter for Sri Lanka with 108 off 105 balls with six fours and 5 sixes. Tanzim Hasan Sakib was the best bowler for the Bangladeshi side with 3 wickets for 80 runs while Shoriful Islam and Shakib picked 2 wickets each. ‘
Chasing 280 to win, Bangladesh were 41/2 having lost Tanzid Hasan and Litton Das to Dilshan Madushanka. Najmul Shanto and Shakib Al Hasan then joined forces to add 169 runs for the third wicket with Shanto scoring 90 and Shakib hitting 82. Despite losing some late wickets, Bangladesh held on to win the game as Towhid Hridoy scored 15 not out from 7 balls.
Speaking at the end of the game, Kusal Mendis said “When Mathews came to the crease, there were five seconds left. When he came out, he found out about the strap of the helmet. It was disappointing. We expected him to score runs for us; it’s disappointing that the umpires couldn’t step in and make good decisions.” The loss also meant that Sri Lanka were eliminated from the tournament.
Angelo Mathews speaking at the end of the game said “I have two minutes to get to the crease and get myself ready, which I did. And then it was an equipment malfunction. And I don’t know where common sense went, because obviously, it’s disgraceful from Shakib and Bangladesh”
Mathews also added “If they want to play cricket like that, I think there’s something wrong drastically. I still had five more seconds to go after my helmet broke off. You need to respect people who respect us. It doesn’t mean that they have to respect the game itself. I mean, we all are ambassadors of this beautiful game”
“I wasn’t trying to waste time. I wasn’t trying to take advantage of anything. It was just pure equipment malfunction. And it just happened for the very first time in my career. And I’m shocked. I’m not going to say that if I had batted today, we would have won the match. I’m not saying that. I mean, I’m just talking about that incident where it was a crucial time of the match. And we could have gone either way. I mean, we could have got 54, 60 runs more as well.” Said a miffed Angelo Mathews.
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