Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan was at the centre of controversy as he appealed for timed out against Angelo Mathews. Ian Bishop revealed that the on-field umpires Marais Erasmus and Richard Illingworth asked him twice whether he wanted to withdraw his appeal but he denied it. After Bangladesh’s three-wicket win over Sri Lanka, Shakib said that the dismissal is well within the toss and he does not mind doing whatever he needs to make his team win.
“One of our fielders (Najmul Hossain Shanto) came to me and said if you appeal now he'll be out. Then I appealed and the umpires asked me if I'm serious or whether I am going to take it back. It's in the laws. I don't know if it's right or wrong. I was at war and I had to take a decision to make sure my team wins. Right or wrong, there will be debates but if it is in the rules I don't mind taking those chances,” Shakib told Sanjay Manjrekar in the post-match presentation.
Mathews became the first cricketer to get dismissed timed out in international cricket. Shakib revealed that the altercation also boosted him while batting. Shakib was dropped early by Charith Asalanka off Mathews' bowling but he went on to score 82 runs from 65 balls.
“That helped, bit more fight, I'm 36 and normally fight doesn't come easily but happy it did today,” the Bangladesh all-rounder added.
Shakib shared a 179-run partnership for the third wicket with Shanto. Shakib said that he wanted to finish the game off but couldn't.
“When I won toss, didn't have any hesitation to bowl. We've trained here and know there's a lot of dew. It was a very good partnership, and would've loved to finish it off,” he said.
However, Mathews won the mini-battle against Shakib as he got his wicket. Mathews did not celebrate Shakib’s wicket aggressively but pointed towards his wrist as if he was showing Shakib that his time was over in the middle. In his next over, Mathews got the wicket of Shanto as well but it was not enough to lead Sri Lanka to a victory.
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