News

Excitement causes confused conclusion

Elias Sunny remained the most sought-after Bangladesh player the day after their 3-2 series win.

Mohammad Isam
Mohammad Isam
09-Dec-2012
The celebrations began prematurely as Bangladesh won the series  •  AFP

The celebrations began prematurely as Bangladesh won the series  •  AFP

Elias Sunny remained the most sought-after Bangladesh player the day after their 3-2 series win.
Everyone wanted to know why he didn't complete the run that would have sealed Bangladesh's win off the fifth ball of the 44th over. Nasir Hossain had to reconfirm the win with another shot over the covers the next ball, sparing Sunny the ire of millions.
His teammates, though, gave him an earful later in the dressing room. "Mushfiqur, Riyad, Mashrafe, they all started shouting at me," Sunny said, relieved that he can still see the funny side of his carelessness. "It was sweet because we had won but I can't tell you what they said."
The confusion, according to Sunny, began when Nasir started to celebrate in earnest after hitting the fifth ball of the 44th over. The ball sailed into the deep field but didn't reach the boundary and Sunny appeared to be have been taken in by his teammates who had rushed to the middle to celebrate.
"The way Nasir hit that ball and started celebrating, I thought the ball went to the boundary," Sunny said. "He thought I had completed the run so he started to celebrate. I returned from very near the popping crease.
"I would have completed the run if I knew it wasn't a boundary. It was due to excitement. The ball was dead when the team had entered the field. If I had walked towards the striker's end, I the ball would have been live and that could have been risky."
West Indies captain Darren Sammy was also laughing when asked about the incident right after the match. "That was actually funny. I thought the two guys crossed and one didn't touch the popping crease.
"Apparently one guy didn't reach the crease at all. I would probably take a look at it in the replay and have a laugh about it again," Sunny said. "They did what they had to do and congratulations to them."
Sunny said he followed the next ball quite carefully. Nasir cut it away to the boundary. "I really focused on the ball crossing the rope."

Mohammad Isam is ESPNcricinfo's Bangladesh correspondent