BRISBANE: Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene was critical of Indian spinner R Ashwin’s tactics to get Lahiru Thiramanne run out in today’s match but was happy that eventually sportsman spirit prevailed.
Sri Lanka’s top scorer Thiramanne backed way out at the non-strikers’ end and Ashwin once removed the bails to claim a run-out appeal against the batsman.
Later, between the umpires and the stand-in Indian skipper Virender Sehwag, the issue was defused. “I don’t play like that. I wouldn’t have got the bails off in the first place. I know the rule has changed so we try to make sure no advantage to the batsman. I probably felt a little bit of fault in our guy as well to be honest. At the end of the day, it was the spirit of the game and we did the right thing,” said Jayawardene.
The new rule states that a bowler can run-out a batsman even as the bowling arm is poised to release the ball.
Earlier, it was that while running in, he could remove the bails without quite getting into the bowling action of his.
Jayawardene wasn’t sure that Thirimanne was given warning by Ashwin — a claim earlier made by Sehwag.
“When was he warned? I think you should ask the umpires if he was warned.”
Even though Sri Lanka won, there were again a few dropped catches and fumbles in the field for an overall shoddy display.
“We played good game but still we made a few mistakes. Indian batting is very strong so we were under pressure in certain situations.
But once again we created opportunities, with the new ball we picked up wickets again. We played a complete game, apart from a couple of dropped catches.
“Maharoof has bowled well, so has Kulasekara. We have two allroudners, lot of options. The workload of Angelo Mathews is also being monitored well.”
“It was a crucial game for us. We didn’t have a good start but we have come back strongly. We played some consistent cricket. We now need to take this momentum forward and get ourselves in the finals.”
Jayawardene sympathised with the Indian situation when the injury to Vinay Kumar forced Sehwag to bowl with Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli.
“Vinay walked off so he was short with options. He probably didn’t have much confidence in Umesh.”
Jayawardene, following his 61 at Sydney against Australia last week, now has struck 45 against Indians as an opener. But he wasn’t sure if it would continue to be the trend for the rest of the series.