Feature

Jayawardene's Sri Lankan rope trick

Plays of the Day from the India v Sri Lanka Asia Cup clash

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Fatullah
28-Feb-2014
Ajinkya Rahane and Shikhar Dhawan in the clash of the Indians  •  AFP

Ajinkya Rahane and Shikhar Dhawan in the clash of the Indians  •  AFP

The Sri Lankan rope trick
Chasing back from mid-on to get under a lofted shot from R Ashwin off Lasith Malinga, Mahela Jayawardene realised he didn't have a chance to catch it and turned his attention to stopping the boundary as the ball bounced and rolled towards the prism-shaped blocks of advertising that, for the sake of convenience, shall henceforth be known as the rope. Jayawardene slid past the rope, pulling the ball back before it could join him on the other side, but saw that he hadn't retarded its momentum completely. Diving back over, and lifting his feet off the ground in an exaggerated manner, he pushed the ball back into play, just in time.
The collision
In India's match against Bangladesh, Mohammed Shami and Ambati Rayudu had collided while going for the same catch. Shami had somehow managed to hold on. Now, it was Ajinkya Rahane and Shikhar Dhawan's turn to converge, running from point and third man respectively to get under a top-edge that Kusal Perera sent steepling over Fatullah. Unlike Shami, neither Rahane nor Dhawan came away with the ball.
The swipe and miss
Coming down the pitch to Ravindra Jadeja, Kumar Sangakkara failed to connect with an attempted flick. The ball trickled off his pads and towards the stumps. As he had done to stump Mominul Haque in the match against Bangladesh, Dinesh Karthik swooped down at the ball, picked it up, and swiped at the stumps. This time, he missed his target completely. By the time he knocked down the bails on the second attempt, Sangakkara - as replays showed - was comfortably back in his crease.
The full-toss
Dew was clearly bothering the Indian bowlers - in the 46th over the ball had become so damp that the umpires called for a replacement. The seamers were still finding it hard to grip, though, as seen in the number of full-tosses they were bowling at the closing stages. One of these full-tosses, though, nearly won India the match, slicing off Kumar Sangakkara's bat and into the hands of a diving R Ashwin at short third man. It was waist-high from Mohammed Shami, but the third umpire deemed it had been no higher than that.

Karthik Krishnaswamy is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo