VIDEO | Lakshan Sandakan dismisses Ben Stokes’ twice in four overs; both times on no-balls
Just when the Sri Lanka fans thought there were no other ways left for their cricketers to disappoint them, they came up with a new one. The latest to join the fray is an unfortunate Lakshan Sandakan who managed to dismiss Ben Stokes twice in a space of four overs, and he overstepped both the times.
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Hence, after reducing England’s first innings lead to 96 runs, Sri Lanka looked to be in a good space with the visitors being reduced to 39/4 within the first 14 overs of the second innings. However, given the nadir that the Lankan team has been going through at the moment, nothing could pan out to be so simple. The incident happened in the 24th over when Sandakan was bowling to Stokes while Jos Buttler was at the non-striker’s end. With Moeen Ali the only hurdle after these two, Sri Lanka looked for a win.
Sandakan had taken a fifer (5/95) in the first innings and was over-brimming with confidence to wipe clean the English batsmen. But, what followed might have destroyed his confidence forever. His lofted delivery outside off was driven by Stokes and had consequently given an easy catch to a fielder. While the batsman was walking back to the pavilion, replays showed that Sandakan was overstepped and Stokes was called back.
Despite scoring 57 in the first innings, Stokes was visibly struggling now and Sandakan had another chance of sending him back to the pavilion four overs later. The ball was a bit fuller this time with Stokes’forward defence catching a thick edge to the slip. But, given Sandakan’s notorious front foot, the umpire decided to check for overstepping again, and the bowler was found doing the same thing again.
While Stokes might think himself to be the luckiest man on earth at the moment, an analysis by Sky Sports later revealed that an unbelievable 40% of the Sandakan’s balls were no-balls.
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