Rohit Sharma withdraws Mankading appeal, avoids another controversy

Guwahati: India pacer Mohammed Shami almost did a 'Mankading' by trying to run out Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka at the non-striker's end but his skipper Rohit Sharma intervened and withdrew the appeal to avoid yet another controversy in the first ODI here on Tuesday.

It happened in the fourth ball of the final over of Sri Lanka's stiff run chase of 374 when Shanaka was two runs shy of his century. Shanaka backed up Kasun Rajitha too far and Shami ran him out from the non-striker's end.

But Rohit came in and withdrew the appeal after a brief conversation with Shami.

Shanaka took the strike next ball and completed his century with a boundary. But his 108 not out off 88 balls went in vain as Sri Lanka managed 306 for 8 to lose by 67 runs.

Run outs at the bowler’s end were no longer considered 'unfair play' since October last year after the ICC amended its rule book.

Such run-outs when the batter tries to go past the crease before the bowler releases the ball are known as 'Mankading', harking back to the first such dismissal crafted by Vinoo Mankad when he ran out Bill Brown at the non-strikers end in this fashion twice in the 1947-48 Test series against Australia.