Sri Lanka prepare for New Zealand challenge with unchanged T20I squad
Sri Lanka have named a strong 16-member squad led by Charith Asalanka for a six-match white-ball series involving three T20Is followed by three ODIs, against New Zealand.
England all-rounder Ben Stokes has cleared the air regarding the controversial overthrow which awarded England the match-turning six runs against New Zealand in the final of the recently concluded World Cup in England and Wales.
“I saw all of that. I was thinking to myself, did I say that? But hand on heart, I did not go up to the umpires and say something like that to the umpires,” he said in the latest episode of BBC podcast.
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Meanwhile, the southpaw said that he went to the keeper (Tom Latham) and captain (Kane Williamson) to apologise about his mistake.
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“I went straight to Tom Latham and said ‘Mate, I am so sorry’, looked over to Kane (Williamson) and said ‘I’m sorry’,” said Stokes.
On 14 July at Lord’s, during England’s chase of 242, Stokes accidentally knocked the ball coming in from deep midwicket fielder and deflected it off to the third man boundary, while attempting to dive for his crease with an outstretched bat in a bid to complete his second run.
After consultation with Marais Erasmus and the rest of his umpiring colleagues, Kumar Dharmasena signalled six runs for the incident, and the decision eventually helped England to end the match in a tie. Following this, a Super Over was played and that too ended in a tie but England won the trophy on boundary count.
Earlier, Stokes’ teammate James Anderson had claimed that the all-rounder, who was hugely apologetic the moment the incident happened, had appealed to the umpires to overturn their decision.
(With inputs from IANS)
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