Sri Lanka skipper Kusal Mendis expressed his "disappointment" regarding the umpires' decision to uphold Angelo Mathews's 'timed out' dismissal during their three-wicket loss to Bangladesh at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Monday.
An unprecedented moment in the history of cricket took place in the 25th over of the first innings. Mathews was adjudged timed out after he failed to arrive at the crease within two minutes of Sadeera Samarawickrama's dismissal. Shakib made an appeal and the umpire decided to send Mathews back as it was within the laws of World Cup cricket. Mathews had a conversation with Shakib, but he ultimately did not change his decision, leading to the departure of the al-rounder. After the game, Kusal didn't hold back from expressing his disappointment with the decision from the umpire. He claimed that five seconds were left when Mathews arrived at the crease and that was the moment when he found out that there was an issue with the strap of his helmet. "We also made mistakes; had we played better cricket, we would have a better chance of entering the top four. 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. We expected him to score runs for us; it's disappointing that the umpires couldn't step in and make good decisions." Coming to the match, Bangladesh left it late to clinch a three-wicket victory at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. Shakib's 169-run stand with Najmul Hossain Shanto set the tone of the chase of 280 for The Tigers. They lost a couple of wickets as they came closer towards the target but Towhid Hridoy's presence ensured that Bangladesh walked away with two points. (ANI)
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