Lanka deny any off-field hand in Perera review

KOLKATA:SRI Lanka Cricket denied that the dressing room was involved in Dilruwan Perera seeking a review of his dismissal on Sunday. In the last ball of the 57th over, Perera was hit on his back leg by one from Mohammed Shami that swerved in after pitching.

He was declared out by umpire Nigel Llong but Sri Lanka stayed on 208/7 because Perera, after turning towards the dressing room and taking a couple of steps, stopped, turned and sought a review. It was then seen that the ball had pitched outside the offstump.

Declared not out, Perera added 36 more for the eighth wicket with Rangana Herath. Taken together with Shikhar Dhawan dropping Lahiru Thirimanne on 27, this was an important reason in Sri Lanka taking a 122-run first innings lead. “Contrary to the assumptions made, there was no ‘message from the dressing room’ involved in the requested review,” a Sri Lanka Cricket media release said.

“Having mistakenly assumed that Sri Lanka were out of reviews, Dilruwan Perera had turned to leave the field when he heard Rangana Herath inquire from the on-field umpire Nigel Long (sic) if Sri Lanka have reviews left, to which Mr. Long (sic) answered in the affirmative,” said the release. “It was then that Perera requested the review,” said the release.

“It’s simple: I was asking Nigel about the review and maybe he (Perera) too heard that. I didn’t call him back and didn’t see whether he was looking towards the dressing room because I was looking at Nigel Llong,” said Herath after stumps.

With skipper Dinesh Chandimal seemingly involved in an on-field incident on Saturday, Herath was asked if Sri Lankans were still not familiar with the new rules. “…Everybody is learning…in future we will all be 100% with the rules,” he said.

SANJAY IN FAVOUR OF DRESSING ROOM HELP

PTI ADDS: Former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar said he is in favour of batsmen taking help from dressing room in case he has doubts while going for a review. “I think if you are a batting side and within 15 seconds if a batsman wants to look towards dressing room to get some clue, that shouldn’t be big a deal. A fielding side has 11 players and they can have a word with each other before going for a review. Rules should be fair for both teams” he said.