“Had Angelo Mathews Faced One Ball And Asked For Helmet…”: Dinesh Karthik On Timed Out Row | Cricket News

The Angelo Mathews ‘timed out’ controversy remains one of the most discussed incidents from the Cricket World Cup 2023. Mathews was dismissed without facing a single ball in the match against Bangladesh after failing to ‘be ready’ to face the bowler in the stipulated time of 2 minutes. Though Mathews claims that it was the helmet malfunction that prevented him from being ready to face the bowler, veteran Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik feels that the all-rounder could’ve faced a delivery before asking for a replacement helmet.

Seeing Mathews taking longer than desired to be ready, Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasand decided to appeal for ‘timed out’. The on-field umpire sent the issue upstair and the decision came in Bangladesh’s favour. A furious Mathews had no choice but the return back to the bench dejected.

While there are many who have sympathised with Mathews on the incident, Karthik feels he didn’t show the presence of mind that was required at that instance.

“If Angelo Mathews would have faced one ball and then asked for the helmet, nothing would have happened. I don’t think that he had the presence of mind at that point, but more importantly, I think that never in his wildest dreams, Mathews would have thought that somebody would have asked for timed-out. That is the more important thing,” Karthik said on Cricbuzz.

In the post-match press conference, Mathews had even blasted Shakib for his ‘disgraceful’ act.

“I don’t know where the common sense went, because obviously it’s obviously disgraceful from Shakib and Bangladesh if they want to play cricket like that obviously stooped down to that level I think there’s something wrong drastically because – if I got late if I got past my two minutes to get to the crease and in the law says you have to be ready within the two minutes and I was there two minutes 45 or 50 seconds – I still had after my helmet broke off, I still had five more seconds to go.

“And the umpires also have said to our coaches that they didn’t see my helmet breaking. I mean, I was just asking for my helmet,” Mathews had said.