IND vs SL: Rohit Sharma reveals why India refused to run Dasun Shanaka out dispite Shami's appeal

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma played a key role in allowing Sri Lanka’s Dasun Shanaka to complete his century against Team India at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati on Tuesday. Starting its dress rehearsals for the 2023 edition of the ICC World Cup, India went head to head against Sri Lanka in the first ODI of the three-match series at Guwahati.

Owing to Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, and Virat Kohli's outstanding innings, Sri Lanka were left with a difficult task in the high-scoring match at Barsapara Cricket Stadium. Leading the fightback for the visitors, in-form Shanaka played a brilliant knock during Sri Lanka's unsuccessful run chase. Interestingly, Shanaka could have been run out on 98 in the last over of the Sri Lankan innings.

Completing the last over of the match, Indian speedster Mohammed Shami managed to run the non-striker out (Shanaka) after the Sri Lanka captain had backed up too far before the completion of the delivery. Demonstrating the high standards of sportsmanship, Indian captain Rohit Sharma decided to reverse the appeal as Sri Lankan skipper was handed a lifeline in the final over.

When asked about the incident during the post-match presentation, Rohit lauded his Sri Lankan counterpart for playing a valiant knock."I had no idea Shami had done that. When he went up in an appeal. Again, he (Shanaka) is batting on 98. The way he batted was brilliant. We got to give it to him. We cannot get him out like that. 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," Rohit said after the match.

Here's the video:

After keeping the strike in Shami's final over, Sri Lankan captain Dasun Shanaka hit a boundary on the penultimate delivery of the match to complete his century. Sri Lankan skipper remained not-out on 108 off 88 balls as Sri Lanka amassed 306-8 in 50 overs.

However, Shanaka's batting heroics went in vain as Team India outclassed the Islanders by 67 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

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