Team India came so close and yet so far from victory in the first ODI against Sri Lanka on Friday. The all-important clash between India and Sri Lanka was tied after the Men in Blue failed to secure a run off 14 balls, prompting the fans to take out their anger on Arshdeep Singh, who faced the last ball of the innings.
At one stage, the match looked shaky for India, who had lost half their total on 132. However, some brave knocks from Axar Patel and Shivam Dube took the Men in Blue close to the target, needing just 1 run from 14 balls. However, Charith Asalanka dismissed Dube and Arsdheep Singh to ensure only a 2nd ODI tie between the two nations.
Fans on social media were particularly outraged by Arshdeep's attempt to hit a big shot off Asalanka, instead of looking for a single. The dismissal led to Arshdeep being compared to West Indies player Shanon Gabriel, who played out a similar scenario during a Test match against Pakistan in 2017.
In that encounter, West Indies needed just 7 balls to draw, and Gabriel more or less had one last ball to play with a well-settled Roston Chase at the other end. Instead, Gabriel chose to go on the attack against Yasir Shah and the ball crashed into his stumps.
One user on X while laying the blame on Arshdeep said, “So What if most batsman struggled initially to bat on this wicket Arshdeep Singh Gayle thinks he can hit a one handed six from the handle of his bat...”
Another user wrote, “kya wahiyat shot khela Arshdeep Singh ne, just blind slogging when you need just one run to win. Horrible cricket. Cost us the match.”
Meanwhile, some users also came to the defence of Arshdeep. One such user wrote, “Arshdeep Singh had to limit comments on this Insta post so his Father doesn’t become target of hate. He lead India to World Cup victory but it’s never enough if you are Sikh. You are just one bad performance away from Hate filled campaigns.We are proud of you Arsh veer.”
