If it was not for their victory in the Rugby World Cup providing distraction, the SA performances during the Cricket World Cup would be cause of a national overdose on Prinivil and Zestril
SL v BAN has plenty of controversy with Angelo Matthews being timed out as he walked to the crease (in good time) and then asked for another helmet and took way too long to face his first delivery. First time in international cricket.
Then in the 38th over one of the (un)cleanest stumping you will ever see as the keeper fumbles a simple take and then breaks the stumps with his helmet before he does with ball in hand. But realising the error he lifts out a stump to make the dismissal because the batter had given up when he could have walked back into his crease.
European Cricket League standard.
The timed out is being justified (in another forum where I discuss cricket) by the Bangladesh supporters due to the in-game penalties for slow over rates. Apparently if you don’t bowl X overs by time Y, you have to bring an extra fielder into the circle for the rest of the innings. Do batting sides have (supposedly) taken to milking the allowed two minutes to take strike.
No idea if any of this makes sense or is even fact based.
I might have some sympathy for that view, but his helmet strap broke as he tightened it, puttint him in a situation where he couldn’t do anything about the time.
Looks like the reaction from ex cricketers is pretty overwhelmingly critical of Shakib.
We’re well aware following the passing of Philip Hughes of the critical importance of helmets. The idea that the one and only time the timed out rule has been applied in international cricket is because the batter was trying to fix his safety equipment is… I mean it’s not great, is it?
A rule to prevent time-wasting is a good one! But under the rules as written, he could have faced one ball helmetless and then spent 5 minutes getting a new helmet brought out and adjusted. So it’s not a rigorously thought out system.
The fourth umpire, Adrian Holstock, has released a statement saying that “In this instance the batter wasn’t ready within those two minutes even before the strap became an issue for him. The two minutes had already elapsed”.
Ah well, that puts it in a different light
Sounds like some furious corporate spin to me. BBC counted the time showing he had five seconds to spare at the time his helmet strap broke.
Matthews referred to this in his interview as well.
Sri Lanka losing helps Pakistan ever do slightly. But I was 100% behind them after this incident.
This to me was like the Andrew Hilditch handled the ball incident from 40+ years ago.
FWIW, the on-air announcers seemed to agree with the decision, although with the caveat that Mathews was already well past the 2 minute limit. The slow over penalty was one of the main reasons.
I’m more leaning towards ‘this shouldn’t have happened’ now. The umpires claim he was already well over seems dubious, and the whole thing was over so quickly - when he left the field was only 3 and a half minutes after the previous wicket fell.
If this is going to be strictly enforced (and it probably needs to be if you’re also going to have penalties on the bowling side for slow over rates, as previously mentioned) then there should be a countdown clock on the stadium screen (just like for DRS, or for place kicks in rugby - so it should be easy to implement). If the incoming batsman is not ready to face when the clock reaches 0, they can be given out.
However, there should also be dispensation for equipment malfunctions. In this particular case, had the timer described above been in place, it would have been clear whether the chin strap broke within the 2 minutes (in which case not out, he should be allowed to replace the equipment provided he then takes guard immediately this is done), or whether 2 minutes had already elapsed when he started adjusting the strap and it broke (in which case a decision of out seems fair - he should have been fully ready before then).
I think so too but …
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He entered the field before the the outgoing batter left which is usually the sign of a legitimate change over … in the forms/grades of cricket I am involved in. Which isn’t ICC CWC.
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He must have really ambled the 70m to the pitch because even if his helmet strap had not broken he still wouldn’t have been ready to face the bowling in the required time. He hadn’t taken and marked his guard, reviewed the field and settled over his bat.
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It is short odds that he wasn’t the most tardy batter to take strike in this CWC.
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He made no attempt to speak with the umpires or BAN captain to say “I have a problem here, what do I need to do?” though it was evident to the officials.
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And yes, if he’d faced the first delivery then asked for a replacement helmet then roughly the same amount of time would have been lost. Whether that would have meant the umpires could make some allowance for the bowling side is not known to me.
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Matthews also has strayed onto the dark grey side of the “spirit of cricket” himself a couple of times in his career previously.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan have posted what looks a pretty decent total for Australia to chase, 291/5. Helped a little bit by what sounds like a ridiculous not out decision near the end despite Stoinis taking what looked like a clean catch. A nice little test for Australia - their highest ever World Cup chase if they are successful, apparently.
ETA presumably NZ will be cheering for Australia, as if Afghanistan win, and their final game (against SA) is rained out, NZ could go out even if they beat Sri Lanka.
All six Netherlands supporters also cheering on Australia as an Afghanistan win eliminates the Oranje
Australia getting dusted early. Anyone know the score required by Afghanistan (to restrict them to) that would flip the NRR?
They’re not totally gone, but 69/5 - sheesh. Just got done by a very tight run out for the fifth wicket.
Would be amazing if Afghanistan could qualify, shame it would likely be at the expense of New Zealand and Pakistan rather than Australia 
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Finally things are getting spicy in here, as the kid say.
Matthews is sharing this video which does show a degree of ambling. It is very tight and I think you could make if not win an argument that at the point he found the issue with the helmet he was more than 5 secs from being actually ready to bat.
I mean unless you have some real time tracking available to everyone involved, this kind of speculation that he wouldn’t have been ready anyway in five seconds because he was going to do X, Y and Z is absolutely fraught.
The video is what the BBC commentators were describing. I assume it was from one of the broadcasters. I was only following the text updates on bbc.com.