Sri Lanka wicket-keeper Niroshan Dickwella missed an easy run-out chance against South Africa in the first T20I at the Newlands in Cape Town, on Tuesday, which allowed the hosts to level the scores and take the game into the Super Over.
The Proteas then registered an easy win in the Super Over to go 1-0 up in the three-match series.
Dickwella’s error instantly brought in a comparison with Dhoni and the fans explained what the primary wicket-keeper for India would have done in such a situation.
Dickwella missed the direct hit
It all happened when South Africa required two runs off the last delivery to overhaul the Sri Lankan total of 134 in 20 overs and the batsmen – Imran Tahir and Dale Steyn — ran one run to tie the match. It was clever delivery from Isuru Udana which Tahir missed to connect. The ball went to Dickwella but still, the two batsmen ran for a run blindly.
Dickwella threw the ball at the stumps only to miss it by a fair margin thereby allowing the single which kept the visitors away from a famous win.
Relive the moment here:
Niroshan Dickwella has missed the easiest run-out of his life. Length ball on off, and Dickwella tries to cut, but the ball's been under-edged to Dickwella. Steyn runs from the other end, and Dickwella takes aim at all three stumps, but he misses! #SAvSL pic.twitter.com/kas1yJdfkS
— Deepak Verma (@dpakwa) March 19, 2019
We all have a mate who'd miss the stumps from point-blank range 🙈 #SportsTonight pic.twitter.com/PQfKempsTK
— Sports Tonight (@SportsTonight) March 21, 2019
The reason that MS Dhoni is hogging the limelight here is due to his brilliance against Bangladesh in the 2016 T20 World Cup at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. Bangladesh needed two runs off the final ball when the batsman didn’t connect and Dhoni, with his one glove, ran faster than the non-striker to affect the dismissal.
Smartly, he didn’t throw the ball as it could have missed the stumps and this is what Dickwella should’ve done according to the fans.
Here’s how fans on Twitter reacted to Dickwella’s mistake:
He wouldn’t have just have had his glove off, he would have been keeping at a distance where he KNEW he could beat the non-striker through to the stumps if the batsmen tried to run a bye.
— Andrew Fidel Fernando (@afidelf) March 19, 2019
Last ball runout run like #dhoni 🔥
Not do like #Dikwella 🤷♂️ 🤦♂️#SAvSL @OfficialSLC @RusselArnold69— S.H.Tyron (@tyron1808) March 19, 2019
https://twitter.com/over35goals/status/1108091656232824832
What a match! #SAvSL
It's a tie but some brilliance from Dickwella could've ended up in a victory for Sri Lanka. But there is only one Dhoni. pic.twitter.com/1BrLnEaKm9
— Shubham 🇮🇳 (@Shubham513) March 19, 2019
