Indian captain Rohit Sharma was not in favour of running out Sri Lankan batter Dasun Shanaka on the non-striker’s end after his premier bowler Mohammed Shami did just the same in the first ODI in Guwahati on Tuesday.
With the match’s outcome all but decided, Shami steamed in to bowl the 50th over. However, on the fourth delivery of the over, Shami broke his stride and ran out the Sri Lankan skipper on the non-striker’s end after he had strayed out of the crease.
Shami clipped the bails and burst into a semi-celebration as the umpire sent the call upstairs to the third umpire. In the meantime, skipper Sharma rushed to Shami, trying to understand the situation. After figuring out what his bowler had done, Sharma went to the umpire and told him the Indian side was withdrawing the appeal.
Shami took his captain’s argument in a healthy way and also signalled the umpire to void the Indian appeal. Notably, Shanaka was on 98, two runs away from a deserving century when Shami ran him out.
In the post-match presentation ceremony, Sharma shone light on the incident and said he had no idea that Shami inflicted the non-striker’s runout.
“I had no idea Shami did that. He went for the appeal. He (Shanaka) was batting on 98 and the way he was batting was brilliant. So, you’ve got to give it to him. We didn’t want to get him out like that. We wanted to get him out the way we thought we’ll get him out. Hats off to him. He batted really well.”
Despite India carting the Sri Lankan bowlers for 373 runs in the quota of 50 overs, the bowlers could not finish the job completely as the visitors managed to cross the 300-run mark in the chase.
Sharma reflected on the same and said the bowling upfront enabled India to avoid any late innings blues.
“We started off really well with the bat. It was a great effort for all the batters. The platform was set to play freely for all the batters. We could have bowled slightly better. I don’t want to be too critical about it. The dew was not that much but it was still difficult to bowl. We got wickets upfront with the ball which helped us with the momentum.”
India will now take on Sri Lanka in the second ODI match at the iconic Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Thursday.
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