The dismissal at the non-striker’s end by a bowler has become common now. While many teams have successfully made it, Bangladesh players Hasan Mahmud and Litton Das were the two who could have become another example to effect the dismissal but Litton Das decided otherwise as well. However, Das called Ish Sodhi back after Mahmud ran him out at the non-striker’s end in the second ODI as well. Sodhi, who was on 17 off 26 at that point, ended up scoring 35, which took New Zealand’s total to 254 and later Sodhi claimed a six-wicket haul to help his side win by 86 runs as well.
Sodhi, who was seen hugging Hasan after being called back, later said that he was impressed with the gesture of Bangladesh. “We are competitive people. You are competing to win games for your country so it can get a bit heated. I think I was out by such a small fraction, it caught me off guard. I come from a bit of an old cloth when you give the batter a warning. I understand it is not the rules at the moment. I think it was a great gesture by Bangladesh. They handled it really, really well. I was fortunate that they were able to call me back. I’d like to think I’d do the same thing if I was the bowler,” Ish Sodhi said at the post match press conference.
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“I am not a very good batter. It was a nice gesture. I would do the same thing as a bowler. I have played under some great captains for New Zealand in the past few years. I think they would have done the same thing. I think Litton Das was exceptional in the way he handled it. I hugged the bowler and gave Litton a bit of a handshake. We all respect the game of cricket very highly and really endevour to keep the spirit intact. I understand that it is part of the rules of the game now. You’ve seen it all over the world. It is a bit of a controversial issue. They could have easily let me walk off. They showed huge sportsmanship out there today. We are fortunate to be in the winning side but it is important to keep the spirit of the game alive, especially when we are playing such competitive cricket to win games for our country,” he further added.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal shared that he did not see anything wrong with the dismissal and he also said that there should be a discussion in the team about whether they do such dismissals going forward as well.
“I think he also shouldn’t have done that,” said Tamim about Sodhi getting out of the crease. “He shouldn’t be surprised too. Whether we take it or not (the dismissal), it is the team’s call. I don’t see anything wrong in it. The rule is there. If we get someone out, or one of us gets out in that manner, I don’t think we should react the way people are reacting nowadays. There’s no need for a warning here. It is like a bowled out. Maybe the captain felt that we won’t take that wicket. So he called him back. There’s no right and wrong. Either you do it, or you don’t do it. Nothing wrong in either. I think we should discuss as a team if we want to do it or not. Going forward, I think you will see a lot of teams taking advantage of this,” he stated.
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“I think it is a team decision. We will definitely talk about it after today’s incident. If it is a team decision that we will take wickets in this way, we will. If we don’t want to take it, we will not try it. I don’t think it looks good to bring back a batter after getting him out. Either we take it, or we don’t do it,” concluded Tamim Iqbal.
