India captain Rohit Sharma has given his reason for withdrawing the run-out appeal against Dasun Shanaka for backing-off too far at the non-striker's end in the first ODI against Sri Lanka here, saying his counterpart was batting on 98 and that was not the way they wanted to get him out.
Shanaka, batting on 98 in the final over, had gone too far out the crease at the non-striker's end and pacer Mohammad Shami wohipped off the bails and appealed for run-out.
However, Rohit Sharma withdrew the appeal, which allowed Shanaka to complete his century and end the match at 108 not out as Sri Lana, chasing a massive total of 373/7 by India were restricted to 306/8 in 50 overs and lost the match by 67 runs on Tuesday night.
The mode of dismissal, popularly called Mankading by the Western media, is quite controversial and even though the International Cricket Council (ICC) recently included it in legal modes of dismissals, many players consider it against the "sprit of the game".
Asked why he withdrew the appeal, Rohit said they "wanted to get him out the way we wanted to get him out". "No, I mean I had no idea Shami did that. Again, he's batting on 98 and the way he batted was brilliant.
Cannot get him out like that and wanted to get him out the way we wanted to get him out. Hats off to him," Rohit said after the match. The incident did not have much impact on the overall result as Sri Lanka were already on the verge of defeat.
Though Rohit was happy with the win in the first of the three-ODIs, he said they could have bowled a little better. "I thought we could've bowled slightly better, but don't want to be too critical of it although the dew was not so much.
We bowled well as a unit and if you want to win games like this, everyone has to come to the party," he said. The India skipper, who has come back to the squad after missing the T20 series against Sri Lanka, said there are some areas of the game they need to look to improve.
"There are some areas we need to look at as a group and again it's a team sport," The second ODI will be played on Thursday at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata while the final 50-over match of the series will be held at Thiruvananthapuram on January 15.