Hyderabad: It wasn't the best of advertisements for sportsman spirit in the first India vs New Zealand ODI at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in the 16th over of the Kiwi innings.
While the Men in Blue had the match under their control having scored 349 runs with the help of a record-shattering double hundred from Shubman Gill and having reduced the visitors for 89/3 with the left-arm leg-spinner Kuldeep Yadav having just bowled Henry Nicholls in the 3rd ball of the 16th over, in the very next ball, an appeal from Team India led by wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan raised a few eyebrows.
Immediately after the 4th ball of the over, Kishan appealed to the umpire, presumably for a hit wicket dismissal. The wicketkeeper-batter's teammates joined him in his appeal, however, replays showed that Kishan had himself disturbed the stumps by his gloves. He even donned a cheeky smile later.
The act was, however, criticised by Sunil Gavaskar, who was on English commentary when the incident happened at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.
With Tom Latham on strike, Kishan tried to recreate the controversial Hardik Pandya dismissal from the first innings where the Indian all-rounder was adjudged out bowled even when replays showed that the ball had not touched the stumps but the timber was disturbed by Latham's keeping gloves.
Earlier, India captain Rohit Sharma had withdrawn appeal for Sri Lanka skipper Dasun Shanaka's run-out at non-striker's end. "We cannot get him out like that," the Hitman had gone on record saying.
"We wanted to get him out the way we thought we would get him out. But that was not something that we thought of. But again, hats off to him, he played really well," he added.
Rohit's gesture allowed Shanaka to get to a hundred as he was dismissed, well within the laws of the game, when he was on 98. Pandya's dismissal too was within the rules as it was an umpiring decision.