A unique coincidence in three different international matches

The International season is on song right now with most teams involved in bilateral ties as three international matches were played Thursday (September 28). While India and Australia battled it out in the fourth ODI of the 5-match series, Pakistan and South Africa began their home season with a Test against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh respectively.

Now, how often are do batsmen who play at the same position across three different international games get out in the exact same manner on the very day? Well, this happened on Thursday when the three openers involved in aforementioned games were dismissed run out.

The Men in Blue couldn’t continue their winning streak against the team from down under as they lost the 4th ODI by 21 runs at Bangalore. Sri Lanka posted 227 for the loss of 4 wickets on an intriguing day against the hosts Pakistan courtesy the half-centuries from Dimuth Karunaratne and skipper Dinesh Chandimal. On the other hand, the Proteas piled on the agony of the visitors and scored a massive 298/1 on the first day as Dean Elgar scored a magnificent ton and is still unbeaten.

Details of the unique coincidence

The first opener to be run out on the day was Dimuth Karunaratne who scored a superlative 93 off 205 deliveries and bailed his team out of the precarious situation of 61/3. Just when he looked set for a well-deserved ton, the batsman was involved in a mix-up with his skipper and was found agonisingly short of the line. He hit just 5 boundaries in his patient knock which proves how dedicated he was right through.

Chasing a mammoth total of 335, India got off to a rollicking start as Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma took a liking to the Aussie new ball bowlers. The latter once again looked in sublime form as he reached his half-century with a gigantic six. But he ran a little too much on a delivery which Virat Kohli hit to midwicket and was run-out convincingly to hand Australia the advantage at a crucial stage in the match.

South Africa handed a debut to the young Aiden Markram in the first Test against Bangladesh. He grabbed the opportunity with both the hands and scored a magnificent 97 while opening the innings with Dean Elgar. He appeared set for a magnificent ton in his first game in the whites for Proteas. But Elgar called him for a single and then thought against it and the youngster had backed up too far to be found short of his ground.

The openers run out on the day were: Dimuth Karunaratne (Sri Lanka), Rohit Sharma (India), Aiden Markram (South Africa).