Shami ‘Mankads*’ Shanaka on 98: What a display of ruthless batting and bowling India showed up in the first ODI against Sri Lanka on Tuesday at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati. After a very long time, we saw Rohit Sharma being RO-HITMAN Sharma, some runs for Shubman Gill’s bat, and a heartily century celebration of none other than KING KOHLI.
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India was excellent throughout every part of the game. While batting, India put up a huge total of 373 riding Virat’s ton and half-centuries from Rahit and Gill (Read Match Review). And while defending the target, India’s fast bowlers picked wickets and never allowed Sri Lanka to settle down and start the chase. Sri Lanka had already lost the match till 45th over itself, but the match was completed just for the sake of formality. It was the last over which took everyone’s attention.
Shami ‘Ran out’ Shanaka at non-striker’s End on 98
In the final over of the second innings of the first ODI, India pacer Mohammed Shami ran out Sri Lanka skipper Dasun Shanaka at the non-striker’s end. With only three balls remaining, Shanaka, the captain of Sri Lanka, was batting on 98 and eager to do anything to get back to strike. Shami, on the other hand, observed that Dasun was backing up excessively at the non-striker’s end and made the decision to run him out at 98.
Meanwhile, India’s captain withdrew the appeal, and the umpires declared the ball dead. Later, Shanaka got his strike, and on the game’s final two balls, he hit a boundary and a six to complete his century. Despite losing by a score of 67 runs, Sri Lanka’s captain’s century will give them more confidence.
When Rohit was asked about the incident by Dinesh Kartik, the Indian skipper said, “I had no idea Shami did that (run-out), he was batting on 98. The way he batted was brilliant, we cannot get him out like that. We wanted to get him out as we wanted but that was not something we thought of, hats off to him, he played really well.”
But if you watch the match, you won’t see any intent from any of the Sri Lankan Batters to take on the charge. Dasun Shanaka on the other hand, looked like he was playing only for his century as he knew he won’t be able to win the match for the team. Had Rohit not withdrawn Shami’s appeal, Shanaka would have been dismissed, but the Sri Lankan captain was allowed to continue his innings and ended up at 108 not out off 88 balls.
MANKAD*- Running a batter at non-striker’s end.
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