Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan insisted that he had no reservation to ensure his side's victory as he took the decision to inflict a 'timed out' dismissal on Sri Lanka's Angelo Mathews without thinking it as 'right or wrong.'
With ICC Champions Trophy at stake, Bangladesh needed to ensure two points and they did it exactly, beating Sri Lanka by three wickets finally. The win helped Bangladesh move up seventh position for the time being, reports BSS.
Mathews took the time more than two minutes to be at the crease because of the broken strap of his helmet. According to ICC playing conditions, opposition captain could appeal for dismissal if a batter takes more than two minutes.
"One of our fielders came to me and said if you appeal now he'll be out. Then I appealed and the umpires asked me if I'm serious or whether I am going to take it back. It's in the laws. I don't know if it's right or wrong. I felt like I was at war and I had to take a decision to make sure my team wins," Shakib told the broadcaster after the match.
"Right or wrong, there will be debates but if it is in the rules I don't mind taking those chances. That (altercation with Mathews) helped, bit more fight, I'm 36 and normally fight doesn't come easily but happy it did today."
Shakib in fact led the side to the victory with his stellar allround performance. He took two wickets for 57 runs and then bludgeoned Sri Lanka bowlers to blast 65 ball-82 as Bangladesh raced to the victory with 53 balls to spare, overhauling Sri Lanka's 279.
Najmul Hossain Shanto made 90 and shared 169-run with Shakib for the third wicket which made sure Bangladesh would successfully chase highest total at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.
"When I won toss, didn't have any hesitation to bowl. We've trained here and know there's a lot of dew. It was a very good partnership, and would've loved to finish it off," Shakib added.
Bangladesh began the tournament with a six-wicket win over Afghanistan but thereafter their performance took a huge nosedive as they conceded six straight defeats to be eliminated from the semifinal race.
The performance that Bangladesh would love show indeed some at so late.
"We could have been consistent, that's one disappointment," Shakib remarked.
"There wasn't much for the bowlers, we bowled really well upfront. Spinners kept it tight. Both the spinners bowled really well. Bowling wins us more matches, fast bowlers were bowling really well up to the World Cup. We couldn't live up to our expectations but we knew that we can fight back, we had that mentality."
However the belief to return to the best was there always, Shakib added.
"We kept on believing and we kept on coming back and today it paid off. The ground dimension helped as well, the shorter boundary, there was a lot of pace on the ball, so I just had to use the pace, luckily it came off and from there on I never looked back."