VIDEO | Sri Lanka find new ways to embarrass fans, gets five-run penalty for clumsiness
Sri Lanka are living one of those pre-historic curses that doesnât seem to be going away any time soon. When the fans thought the team couldnât embarrass them any further after conceding the ODI series brutally by England, the Lankans have found an innovative way in the Test series.
After getting battered 3-1 by England in their own backyard in the ODI series and losing the only T20I match following that, Sri Lanka
The numerous changes in captaincies and consecutive losses in one series after another have also tainted the dressing room atmosphere, all summing to paint a very bad picture for the national team. They stand in the sixth position of the Test rankings, eighth in the ODI rankings, and ninth in the T20I rankings and just when everyone thought things couldnât get any worse, the side found a new way to embarrass themselves and frustrate the fans.
The incident happened during the first innings of the 2nd Test in Pallekele, where the hosts were batting second after England had taken a 290-run lead in the first innings. Batting second, the Lankans started with their usual batting collapse, losing six wickets for 165 runs, before Roshen Silva and Niroshan Dickwella brought some stability.
The incident in question happened in the 86th over of the first innings when Sri Lanka was hanging by a thin thread of their lower order batsman. Jack Leachâs short ball was well wide off and Silva hit it behind square where Moeen Ali was chasing it. However, the batsman didnât bother to ground his bat after a single as he thought the ball had gone for the boundary.
However, Ali did brilliantly