I felt like I was at war, says Shakib on Mathews' controversial 'time out' dismissal
New Delhi (PTI): Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan said he felt like he "was at war" when he decided to approach the umpire demanding Sri Lankan all-rounder Angelo Mathews be 'timed out' for not being ready to face the ball within two minutes of the fall of a wicket in a World Cup match here on Monday.
The incident happened in the 25th over when Mathews walked out to bat after the dismissal of Sadeera Samarawickrama but found that his helmet strap was broken and immediately signalled for a replacement instead of facing the bowler, Shakib.
This prompted Bangladesh to appeal for a 'time out'. Mathews was seen having an animated discussion with umpire Marais Erasmus and Richard Illingworth, explaining that he had some issue with the helmet strap. He also approached Shakib, who didn't withdraw his appeal and the Sri Lankan cricketer was forced to leave the field.
"I felt like I was at war. Whatever I had to do, I did it. There will be debates. Today that (the time out) helped, I won't deny that!" said Shakib after the match.
"One of our fielders came to me and said that if I appealed, he (Mathews) would be out. The umpire asked me if I was serious. It's in the laws; I don't know if it's right or wrong," added Shakib.
Sri Lanka skipper Kusal Mendis said the umpires should have taken a "good decision" on the issue.
"When Mathews came to the crease, there were five seconds left. When he came out, he found out about the strap of the helmet. It was disappointing. We expected him to score runs for us; it's disappointing that the umpires couldn't step in and make good decisions," said the Sri Lankan skipper.
Charith Asalanka smashed a 105-ball 108 but it was not enough on Monday as his brilliance was overshadowed by the 169-run partnership between Shakib and Najmul Hossain Shanto, which helped Bangladesh chase down the 280-run target for the loss of seven wickets in 41.1 overs.
Mendis said another 30-40 runs could have made the difference for his team.
"Charith played a brilliant innings, but we were 30-40 runs short; 320 would have been good enough on this wicket. I'm happy that Pathum (Nissanka), Sadeera (Samarawickrama) and Dilshan are coming through," he said.
"I think in the future we'll have a very good team which shows promise. We had a couple of injuries, and that was the reason we had so many changes and newcomers," he added.
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Indian missions in US in touch with students facing visa issues: MEA
New Delhi, Apr 17 (PTI): Indian missions in the United States are in touch with Indian students facing issues relating to revocation of visas and extending possible support to them, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday.
The comments by MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal came amid instances of Indian students in the US receiving communications from local authorities on possible revocation of their visas.
"We are aware that several Indian students have received communication from the US government regarding their F-1 visa status, which happens to be the student visa," Jaiswal said at his weekly media briefing here.
"We are looking into the matter. Our embassy and consulates, they are in touch with the students to provide support," he said.
Jaiswal was responding to a question on several Indian students receiving communications from US authorities under the Donald Trump administration on possible revocation of their visas.
According to reports, an Indian was among four students at Michigan public universities who filed a lawsuit against their possible deportation after their student immigration status was terminated.
Chinmay Deore from India was among the students who filed the lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and immigration officials.
The students argued that their immigration status in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) was illegally terminated, "without sufficient notice and explanation".
The SEVIS is a database that tracks information about non-immigrant students and exchange visitors in the US.
