Angry crowd at Pallekele hurls bottles onto the ground, accosts police

The third One-Day International (ODI) between India and Sri Lanka at the Pallekele Stadium, on Sunday, saw things get ugly as an agitated section of the spectators threw bottles onto the ground and halted play for a considerable period. The unprecedented violence came in the wake of the Indian team snatching the game away from the hands of the Lankans. The match was eventually completed and India won by 6 wickets, thereby sealing the ODI series by a 3-0 margin, with 2 more matches to be played.

With Sri Lanka already having lost the Test series 3-0 earlier, the crowd had probably pinned their hopes on the ODI series to witness their team’s redemption efforts. The 44th over of the Indian innings was when empty plastic bottles were flung from the stands, with many of the projectiles reaching the playing field. Subsequently, the crowd aggressively addressed police officials when they attempted to stop them.

Aggressive Pallekele crowd disrupts play

Sri Lankan stand-in captain, Chamara Kapugedera having won the toss, decided to bat first and his boys were not able to muster up a substantial total, owing to the batting woes that has been troubling the Lankans for quite some time now.

Indian pacer, Jasprit Bumrah performed exceptionally to obtain a 5-wicket haul and openers, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan made their ways onto the ground, faced with a seemingly easy target of 218 runs. Although the top-order trio of Dhawan, skipper Virat Kohli and KL Rahul fell cheaply, Sharma hit a blistering unbeaten knock of 124 runs. Kedhar Jadhav was scalped soon enough by young sensation, Akila Dananjaya and from thereon, MS Dhoni (67*) ably supported Sharma and the two stitched up a partnership that steered India to victory.

The crowd at the stadium was seen getting worked up after the Sharma-Dhoni duo settled in and mayhem began in the 44th over with India requiring 8 more runs to win, when bottles were flung left, right and centre onto the ground. The ground staff was quick to collect the objects but the Sri Lankan fielders were forced to retreat to the centre of the ground to avoid getting hit as more bottles continued to make their way to the boundaries.

This appalling incident resulted in a 35-minute break in the game and the crowd was even seen quarrelling aggressively with the riot police, who were employed to bring the situation under control. As Sunil Gavaskar rightly observed on air that if onlookers never throw valuables when their team performs well, they have absolutely no right to attack the players in their times of predicament.

Although the two teams were forced to the leave the ground owing to continued agitation, the match resumed after a part of the trouble-making crowd was evacuated and India scored the needed runs in 7 more deliveries, winning the match by 6 wickets and consequently, sealing the series.

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