Watch: If India’s ODI battering of Sri Lanka could be condensed into a single dismissal, none would be more fitting than Mohammad Siraj’s run out dismissal of Chamika Karunaratne where the Sri Lankan was not even attempting a run.
The game was already as good as lost for Sri Lanka. In response to India’s mammoth 390-5, Sri Lanka were 39-5 in the 12th over. Karunaratne’s wicket was the next to fall.
Karunaratne set off for a run that didn’t exist from the fifth ball he faced, only to be sent back, with the ball narrowly missing the stumps. A let-off and Siraj had words to let the Sri Lankan know it. The very next ball he’d have his man though.
Karunaratne showed the full face of his bat to the sixth delivery he faced, a pitched up Siraj ball on off stump. Perhaps trying to assert himself with an emphatic dot following his talking-to from Siraj, Karunaratne’s feet took a couple of involuntary steps down the pitch as he followed his defensive stroke back towards the bowler.
Unbeknownst to the batter, he had momentarily left his crease. In one swift motion, Siraj scooped up the ball and hurled it towards the stumps with pinpoint accuracy. Only as the ball rocketed towards his stumps did the Sri Lankan seemed to clock that he may have left his crease, falling over himself to try and get a boot back behind the line.
By that point it was too late, and the jubilant celebrations of the Indian players indicated that the writing was on the wall for Karunaratne, who looked almost shellshocked by what had just happened.
Siraj finished the game 4-32 off 10 overs, with that run out limiting his chances of a potential five-for.
