Kieron Pollard Shows Spirit Of Cricket As He Apologises To Danushka Gunathilaka After The Match, Reveals The Sri Lankan Opener

West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard has apologised to Sri Lanka opener Danushka Gunathilaka in regards to the controversial ‘Obstructing the field’ dismissal of the left-hander on March 10 in the first ODI in Antigua which the hosts won comfortably by 8 wickets.

After providing a solid start to Sri Lanka with a hundred-run stand with skipper Dimuth Karunaratne, Gunathilaka, on 55, was given out obstructing. On the first ball of the 22nd over, the left-hander defended a ball from Pollard. Both Gunathilaka and the non-striker, Pathum Nissanka, who was making his ODI debut, set off for the single.

After taking a couple of steps, Gunathilaka aborted the single, and noticing Pollard run towards the ball, he came back into the crease but had hit the ball with his boot denying the bowler to get to the ball. Pollard and the fielder appealed for the run-out, for which the on-field sent it to the third umpire with the soft-signal as out.

The third umpire on video evidence saw Gunathilaka seeing the ball and then booting it; the opener was deemed out for intentionally deflecting the ball. Since then there has been plenty of debate around whether the batsman saw the ball and decided to move it or he did it unintentionally.

Only after Pollard saw the video he realized I didn’t do anything: Danushka Gunathilaka

Now, between Pollard and Danushka Gunathilaka, the matter seems to be put to bed after the Twitter handle of West Indies Cricket posted images of both the players having a chat post the game.

The 29-year-old Sri Lankan later revealed that the West Indies skipper has apologised to him. Danushka Gunathilaka says that Pollard realized after watching the videos that the opener didn’t saw the ball and mistakenly hit it.

“He apologized, He told me he didn’t see that properly at that time, and only after he saw the video he realized I didn’t do anything,” Danushka Gunathilake told NewsWire.

The wickets of both openers’ triggered a collapse in the visitor’s batting line-up slipped from 105/0 to 232 all out. A hundred from Shai Hope and fifty from Evin Lewis helped the hosts take a lead in the ODI series.

@KieronPollard55 and @danushka_70 had a chat at close of play. ??#SpiritOfCricket #WIvSL ?? pic.twitter.com/FowckA7ajx

— Windies Cricket (@windiescricket) March 10, 2021

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