In the last over of the first ODI between India and Sri Lanka, Mohammed Shami ran out SL skipper Dasun Shanaka at the non-striker’s end.
Batting on 98, and with only 3 balls remaining in Sri Lanka’s chase o 374, in which they were 83 runs behind, Shanaka had backed up too far outside the bowling crease so that he could get back quicker and have a go at getting to only his 2nd ODI century.
Shami ran in and seeing Shanaka stroll out of the bowling crease, swiftly hit the stumps and had a smile on his face looking at Shanaka.
India captain Rohit Sharma and Shami had a little chat with both smiling, and then Sharma decided to withdraw Shami’s appeal of run-out. Eventually, Shanaka got to the strike and hit a 4 to complete his century, before hitting a six on the last ball of the over.
Rohit Sharma withdrew the appeal of Shanaka’s run-out
This incident in the last over of the match which had already been decided much before became a controversial one, with Sharma now getting flak from many fans for withdrawing the run-out appeal of the non-striker even though this is a perfectly legitimate mode of dismissal.
Explaining his decision to withdraw the appeal, Sharma cited that Shanaka was batting on 98 at that point, and almost said that the opponent captain deserved his ton. Sharma also said that he didn’t want to “get him out like that”, and instead would rather dismiss Shanaka the “way we thought we would”.
“I had no idea Shami had done that. When he went up in an appeal… Again, he [Shanaka] is batting on 98. The way he batted was brilliant. We got to give it to him. We cannot get him out like that. We wanted to get him out the way we thought we would get him out. But that was not something that we thought of. But again, hats off to him, he played really well,” Rohit said in the post-match presser.
Talking about the game, Rohit and Gill, with their 143-run opening stand, laid the platform for Virat Kohli, who creamed a sumptuous century, his 45th and back-to-back in consecutive ODIs, taking India to 373. Sri Lanka managed 306 with Umran and Siraj sharing 5 wickets between them.
