Watch: Mark Wood's thunderbolt shatters Dinesh Chandimal's thumb, leaving him hospitalized
Published - 23 Aug 2024, 09:38 PM | Updated - 24 Aug 2024, 11:27 AM
The 34-year-old England pacer Mark Wood demonstrated once again why he is considered one of the world's most dangerous fast bowlers. He forced 34-year-old Sri Lankan batter Dinesh Chandimal to retire hurt after delivering a brutal blow to his thumb.
The first Test of the three-match series between the England National Cricket Team and Sri Lanka National Cricket Team is currently underway at the Old Trafford in Manchester.
Dinesh Chandimal hasn't looked in great touch in the match but he is a crucial part of the Sri Lankan batting line-up. In the first innings, he managed to score just 17 runs off 40 balls with 2 fours before being dismissed by Shoaib Bashir in the 23rd over of the innings.
On Day 3 of the match, Dinesh Chandimal had been performing well in the second innings, but Mark Wood's devastating delivery cut his stay in the middle short.
The incident happened on the second ball of the 18th over when Mark Wood bowled a 149kmph shortish length delivery to the Sri Lankan batter, and the latter failed to make any connection with the ball, resulting in him getting hit on the thumb.
Dinesh Chandimal looked in pain after suffering the blow and he instantly called for the physio. The physio quickly came to check on the batter and applied the magic spray, but as Dinesh Chandimal's thumb began swelling, the physio had to take him off the field. Dinesh Chandimal got retired hurt, and he was later taken to the hospital for an X-ray.
Watch: Mark Wood Injures Dinesh With Brutal Delivery
— Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka (@Hanji_CricDekho) August 23, 2024
Dinesh Chandimal walked back to the dugout in the second inning after scoring 10 runs off 12 balls. His performance in the first Test against England with the bat was enough to help him jump to the seventh spot in the list of most runs for the Sri Lanka National Cricket Team in Test cricket. Dinesh Chandimal surpassed Marvan Atapattu, who scored 5502 runs, to jump to No.7.
Meanwhile, England scored 358 runs in response to Sri Lanka's first-innings score of 236 runs. The Three Lions also bowled well on Day 3 of the Test and picked up quick wickets.
Speaking ahead of the third day's play, England batting sensation Harry Brook said that they were happy with their performances on the first two days.
"Yeah, we're definitely very happy with the way the game's gone so far. Obviously, they put themselves into bat yesterday and the day before, sorry, and we managed to bowl them out on day one, so we're pretty happy with that."
While talking about the batting being challenging, Harry Brook said that the outfield was slow and it was tough to hit boundaries. He said:
"Obviously, the outfield's really slow. Trying to time the ball when it wasn't going for four is a bit annoying, but the pitch is keeping fairly low as well at times. They had a fairly soft ball, so it wasn't easy to pick up boundaries, but just trying to tick along with ones and twos."
