The ‘timed out’ dismissal of Angelo Mathews during the high-octane Sri Lanka-Bangladesh clash on Monday has led to much consternation in the Sri Lanka camp, even as Shakib Al Hasan stood by his decision to appeal.
The incident unfolded during the 25th over of the Sri Lankan innings when Mathews was declared ‘timed out’ – a first in international cricket.
The batter argued that his helmet strap had come off as he prepared to face his first ball, leading to the delay, but Bangladesh refused to withdraw the appeal and the umpires deemed that Mathews had taken longer than the allowed two minutes – as per the Cricket World Cup 2023 playing conditions – to be ready.
But in an on-field interview during the innings break, the fourth official, Adrian Holdstock, clarified that Mathews had indeed exceeded the time limit even before the helmet strap came off.
Shakib maintained that he was well within his rights to appeal after being informed of the possibility by a teammate during Angelo Mathews’ helmet mishap.
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“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,” Shakib explained in the post-match press conference.
“So, then I appealed to the umpires, who asked me If I was going to call him back or not. I said I won’t call him back.”
The Bangladesh skipper explained that he had played against Mathews for a long time and that the Sri Lankan all-rounder came up to him to explain what happened.
“I know him very well; he knows me very well,” Shakib said.
“So, he came and asked me whether if I (will) withdraw my appeal or not If I want to, I said, you know, I understand your situation. It was unfortunate, but I don’t want to.
“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.”
Mathews disagreed with Shakib statements, and claimed that he was ready before the timer had run out.
“I have two minutes to get to the crease and get myself ready, which I did,” Mathews said.
“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.”
The Sri Lankan all-rounder maintained that the team refused to shake hands with Bangladesh after the match as they believed the opposition, in refusing to withdraw their appeal, did not respect them and the spirit of the game.
“You need to respect people who respect us,” Mathews continued.
“It doesn’t mean that they have to respect the game itself. I mean, we all are ambassadors of this beautiful game.”
Mathews went on to add that the dismissal happened at a crucial juncture in the 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.”
