Angelo Mathews' dismissal in the Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh clash stirred a huge controversy on a thrilling night at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Monday, November 6. Sri Lankan veteran Mathews was adjudged 'timed out' in a turn of bizarre events in Sri Lanka's first innings as the spirit of cricket vs laws of cricket debate found life again. Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan appealed for a 'timed out' dismissal, following which the Lankan star was sent back and adjudged 'timed out'.
Now both the players at the epicenter of the dismissal have given their reactions to the incident with both claiming their point to be right. Shakib claimed that his appeal was under the ambit of rules, while Mathews was of the opinion that he got ready before the two-minute time ran out.
"One of our fielders came to me and said, if you appeal, the law says he's out because he hasn't taken his guard within the time frame. So, then I appealed to the umpires, who asked me If I was going to call him back or not. I said I wouldn't call him back. It was in the rules that a batter has to come to the crease within that certain period of time and he wasn't there at that time," Shakib said in a post-match press conference after the game.
'Disgraceful from Shakib and Bangladesh': Mathews
The Sri Lankan veteran, however, stated that the act was disgraceful to Bangladesh and their captain, claiming he was at the crease and ready within the allowed time period. "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 the common sense went, because obviously it's disgraceful from Shakib and Bangladesh. 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," Mathews said in the post-match presser.
The Lankan all-rounder then stood on Sri Lanka's stance to not shake hands with Bangladesh players. "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 get advantage of anything. It was just pure equipment malfunction.
"And it just happened for the very first time in my career. And I'm absolutely 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, obviously, 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," he added.
