Dambulla: India are back in the tri-series with a comfortable win over Sri Lanka on Monday, led by a brilliant innings by Virender Sehwag. But despite his smart innings in a tricky run chase, the questions were raised whether Sri Lanka deliberately denied the Indian batsman a well-deserved century?
Sehwag steered India to the 171-run victory target in 34.3 overs. But there was a sore point when Sehwag batting at 99 and India needing just one run for victory struck Suraj Randiv for a huge six over long-off and raised his bat in celebration, only to realise a moment later that it was a big no-ball from the off-spinner and his runs would not be counted.
As per the rule, the match finished when Randiv over-stepped, which gave India the required one run to win, making Sehwag's six inconsequential.
But the way Randiv denied Indian vice-captain his 13th one-day hundred has raised many eyebrows as the off-spinner didn't bowl a single no-ball in the Test series. So the logical question is why did he bowl a no-ball now and that too by a huge margin?
The dashing Indian batsman raised questions on Sri Lankan team's tactics to deny him scoring a hundred and said it's not the first time they did this to an Indian batsman.
"He hasn't bowled even a single no-ball in the Test series, so why now? The question is logical, because it was a no-ball by a huge margin. I am sure their captain and senior team members were aware of what happened. This is not the first time Sri Lanka have done this. They had done a similar thing against Sachin Tendulkar in Cuttack as well," said Sehwag after the match.
But Shewag, who is never shy of reaching milestones or finishing off matches with his customary sixes, also said things like this happens in the game of cricket.
"It often happens in cricket. When a batsman is on 99 and the scores are level, bowlers try to bowl no-balls and wide balls. The opposing team do not want you to score 100. They tried their best. Fair enough," Sehwag said after the match.
Though, at the presentation ceremony followed, the Sri Lankan skipper chose not to concede that this was a team decision claiming he had no indication that Randiv would in fact overstep the mark by so much margin intentionally.
"It was not deliberate. That's not the way I would like to play cricket. It was not intentional. Viru deserved a hundred. Randiv isn't the kind of person to do anything like that deliberately. If there has been some coaxing before the delivery was bowled, I will have to address that in the dressing room," Sangakkara said.
The controversy took the attention away from yet another special Sehwag performance, picking India up from a tricky situation, and guiding the run chase with an unusually restrained innings. He may have been denied a ton but his claim to being the world's most feared batsman remains strong as ever.
