'Disgraceful': Timed out debate rages as Lankans knocked out

Angelo Mathews has labelled Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan "disgraceful" following the Sri Lanka skipper's timed out dismissal and his side's exit from the ODI World Cup.

Shakib triggered a debate on the spirit of cricket before smashing a rapid 82 in the Tigers' three-wicket victory, which eliminated Sri Lanka from the tournament with a match still to play.

Allrounder Shakib collaborated in a 169-run stand with Najmul Hossain Shanto (90) to help Bangladesh chase down a 280-run victory target in 41.1 overs on Monday.

Charith Asalanka's 108 underpinned Sri Lanka's 279 all out after they were put into bat by Shakib, who was in the eye of a storm on an eventful day.

It was the veteran's appeal that led to Mathews becoming the first player to be 'timed out' in an international match.

Afterward, the Sri Lanka captain expressed his disappointment at Shakib's actions.

"I have two minutes to get to the crease and get myself ready, which I did," Mathews said.

"And then it was an equipment malfunction. And I don't know where the common sense went, because obviously it's disgraceful from Shakib and Bangladesh.

"If they want to play cricket like that, I think there's something wrong drastically. I still had five more seconds to go after my helmet broke off.

"I wasn't trying to waste time. I wasn't trying to get advantage of anything. It was just pure equipment malfunction."

In a later post on social media platform X, Mathews asserted that the fourth umpire ruling was incorrect, and offered several stills suggesting he was within the two-minute time frame and thus should not have been given out.

Sri Lanka had lost Kusal Perera in the first over but Pathum Nissanka (41) and Sadeera Samarawickrama (41) added 63 for the fourth wicket and they were 4-135 in the 25th over when Mathews walked in.

As he prepared to take guard he found the chinstrap of his helmet broken, removed the helmet, and gestured to the dressing room asking for a replacement. 

Under the tournament's playing conditions, a new batter should be ready to face the ball within two minutes and while Mathews was waiting for teammate Chamika Karunaratne to bring the new helmet, Shakib appealed.

Mathews remonstrated with umpires Marais Erasmus and Richard Illingworth – who asked Shakib if he wanted to withdraw his appeal – before leaving the pitch shaking his head in dismay. He threw his helmet soon after crossing the boundary.

Speaking after play, Shakib justified his decision to appeal for Mathews' wicket.

"One of our fielders came to me and said, 'If you appeal, the law says he's out because he hasn't taken his guard within the time frame'," he said.

"So, then I appealed to the umpires, who asked me If I was going to call him back or not. I said, 'I won't call him back' … he came and asked me whether if I (will) withdraw my appeal or not … I said, 'I understand your situation. It was unfortunate, but I don't want to'.

"It was in the rules that a batter has to come to the crease within that certain period of time and he wasn't there at that time."

Asalanka subsequently smashed five sixes and six fours in his second ODI century but Sri Lanka's total appeared under par.

Bangladesh lost both openers inside seven overs but Shakib and Shanto put their chase back on track.

Mathews denied Shakib a hundred, and tapped his wrist in a send-off as if to tell the Bangladesh captain it was his time to go.

Shanto missed out on a hundred too but Sri Lanka still succumbed to their sixth defeat in eight matches. 

Left-arm fast bowler Dilshan Madushanka picked up 3-69 to be the leading wicket-taker of the World Cup with 21 wickets but that was little consolation to him.

Following the team's poor performance in the tournament, the entire Sri Lankan board was sacked and replaced with an interim committee earlier on Monday.

There have been six previous cases of timed out in first-class cricket, the most recent in 2017, but they have included cases such as a batter being unable to be at the ground due to flight delays or flooded roads.

2023 men's ODI World Cup standings

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Ties T	No results N/R	Net Run Rate NRR	Deductions Ded.	Total points PTS
1 India Men IND	9	9	0	0	0	2.57	0	18
2 South Africa Men SA	9	7	2	0	0	1.261	0	14
3 Australia Men AUS	9	7	2	0	0	0.841	0	14
4 New Zealand Men NZ	9	5	4	0	0	0.743	0	10
5 Pakistan Men PAK	9	4	5	0	0	-0.199	0	8
6 Afghanistan Men AFG	9	4	5	0	0	-0.336	0	8
7 England Men ENG	9	3	6	0	0	-0.572	0	6
8 Bangladesh Men BAN	9	2	7	0	0	-1.087	0	4
9 Sri Lanka Men SL	9	2	7	0	0	-1.419	0	4
10 Netherlands Men NED	9	2	7	0	0	-1.825	0	4

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

T: Ties

N/R: No results

NRR: Net Run Rate

Ded.: Deductions

PTS: Total points