Follow UsA frustrated Kusal Mendis said that he was disappointed with the on-field umpires’ conduct in lead-up to Angelo Mathews’ controversial dismissal and said that the officials should have ‘applied common sense’ and adjudged the batter not out.
On Monday at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Mathews became the first cricketer in international cricket history to be dismissed ‘timed out’ after Bangladesh appealed due to the 35-year-old taking more than the allotted two minutes to be ready to face his first ball.
Mathews arrived on the field within the said two minutes but an equipment malfunction — his helmet strap broke — caused a lengthy delay. Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan appealed, after which the on-field umpires Marais Erasmus and Richard Illingworth, upon consulting with each other, ruled Mathews out.
READ: Why was Angelo Mathews "timed out"?
In the aftermath of Sri Lanka’s defeat, Lankan skipper Mendis made his stance on the matter clear.
“It's very disappointing. When Mathews came to the crease, there were five seconds left. When he came out, he found out about the strap of the helmet. It was disappointing that the umpires couldn’t apply common sense,” Mendis said at the post-match presentation.
“We expected him to score runs for us; it's disappointing that the umpires couldn't step in and make good decisions."
Mathews was slated to walk in at 135/4 but the timed out dismissal meant that Sri Lanka were reduced to 135/5. The Lankans eventually finished with 279 but that was chased down inside 42 overs by Bangladesh. Mendis felt that his side were at least 30-40 runs short on a good batting surface.
"Charith played a brilliant innings, but we were 30-40 runs short; 320 would have been good enough on this wicket.”
With the defeat, Sri Lanka are officially out of contention for the semi-finals. When questioned what went wrong for the side, Mendis said that the team was hurt by injuries to key players. Sri Lanka lost Wanindu Hasaranga in lead-up to the tournament and lost skipper Dasun Shanaka and fast bowler Matheesha Pathirana, among others, mid-way through the tournament.
“We had a couple of injuries, and that was the reason we had so many changes and newcomers. But we also made mistakes; had we played better cricket, we would have a better chance of entering the top four,” the Lankan skipper said.
Mendis, however, asserted that Sri Lanka can take encouragement from the performance of some of the younger players.
“I'm happy that Pathum, Sadeera and Dilshan are coming through. I think in the future we'll have a very good team which shows promise,” he said.
With England and Netherlands set to face each other, Sri Lanka might now need a win against New Zealand to be sure of Champions Trophy 2025 qualification.