Mitchell Starc gives Kusal Perera two ‘Mankad’ warnings in first five overs of Australia-Sri Lanka clash

Kusal Mendis, captaining Sri Lanka for the first time in ODIs, won the toss and elected to bat first in Lucknow. Mitchell Starc took the first over for Australia as he generally does. Safe to say, it was an action-packed first six balls.

The very first ball of the match was a quick, in-swinging toe-crusher that Pathum Nissanka somehow managed to get bat on. The Aussies, however, weren’t convinced and felt that it might have hit his pad first. They went up for a review, which they eventually lost as the replays showed that it was, indeed, just bat.

Two balls later, just as Starc was about to get into his delivery stride to bowl the ball, he stopped and stared at the non-striker Kusal Perera, who had wandered out of his crease. Starc pointed at him, giving him a warning to stay inside his crease, failing which he might proceed with a run out at the non-striker’s end.

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“He was actually telling Kusal Perera don’t leave your crease. And that’s fair enough,” said Nasser Hussain on air. “He’s told the umpire, now he’s told the batter. ‘Stay in your crease at that end.'”

This is not the first time that Starc has warned a batter of running him out at the non-striker’s end in his delivery stride. During the second Test of the series between Australia and South Africa at the MCG last year, Starc had similarly warned Theunis de Bruyn for leaving the crease early at the non-striker’s end.

Today, after warning Perera in the first over of the day, Starc stopped in his delivery stride for a second time in the fifth over. While Perera was inside his crease by the time Starc landed his bowling foot, he was not looking at the bowler and had started to wander out of the crease again. Starc, however, didn’t dislodge the bails this time either.