Drama ensued in the dying moments of the first ODI in Guwahati where Mohammed Shami attempted a non-striker’s run-out but had to withdraw the appeal after a light intervention from the skipper Rohit Sharma. The batter in question was the Sri Lankan skipper Dasun Shanaka, who has carried his T20I form to the ODI.

It happened when the game was reduced to a mere formality, with Sri Lanka finding themselves eight wickets down and needing 83 runs to win in the final over of the innings. Shami stopped his run just before the load-up and disturbed the stumps at the
non-striker’s end. Shanaka, who was batting on 98, had already strayed way outside the crease.

While the on-field umpire had referred it to the higher authority, Rohit, who initially wasn’t aware, asked Shami to withdraw the appeal after he learned that there has been a ‘Mankading’ appeal.

“I had no idea he (Shami) did that (run-out) when he went up for an appeal,” Rohit told broadcasters after the match. He also reasoned that he didn’t want to rain on Shanaka’s parade, as he was just two runs away from his century.

“He was batting on 98, we got to be a little [easy, empathetic]. The way he batted was brilliant, so got to give it to him. We can not get him out like that. We wanted to get him out the way we thought we will get him out but that was not something that we thought of. But hats off to him, he played really well,” added Rohit.

As far as the match is concerned, India registered a comprehensive victory to go 1-0 up with two matches remaining. Virat Kohli rolled back the time with an impressive ODI century after Rohit and Shubman Gill got India off to a brisk start. Asked to chase 374, Sri Lanka struggled to assert themselves in the beginning, and heavy lifting from Shanaka could only take them as far as 306. Shanaka remained unbeaten on 308, while Pathum Nissanka when 72.