Sodhi hails Litton for calling him back
New Zealand leg-spinner Ish Sodhi hailed Bangladesh captain Litton Das for recalling him despite being run out.
Sodhi returned with his career-best 6-39 against Bangladesh in their second ODI but his incident during batting created more controversary.
On Saturday during the 46th over, as he got out of the crease from the non-striking end the bowler broke the stumps within his bowling action. According to law the mode of dismissal, which was once termed as Mankading, is regarded as a normal run out. But Bangladesh skipper decided to withdraw appeal and call back the batter. An ecstatic Sodhi shook hands and embrace with bowler and captain.
“Oh, look, you know, um, we’re competitive people, you know, generally when you’re out there and you’re trying to compete and win games for your country, so, it can get a little bit heated. I think I was out by such a small fraction, and, you know, it sort of caught me off guard. But I think back in the day, you know, come from a bit of an old clock, but you give the batter a warning, but I understand that’s not the rules at the moment, so, I think it was a great gesture by Bangladesh, I think they handled it really, really well, and, you know, I’m really fortunate that they were able to call me back, and, and I’d like to think if I was in that situation as well, I’d do the same thing,” said Sodhi after the match.
Sodhi scored a vital 35 late in the innings that in the end proved adequate as Bangladesh failed to chase under light. Sodhi felt it was difficult for the home team.
“The wicket definitely got tougher to bat on later in the day, I think and that was the whole reason why we decided to bat first. And I think, you know, generally when you see a wicket that’s been undercover for a while, you think maybe we’ll bowl first and see what it’s actually doing. But it’s definitely deteriorated over time and, and it turned out that it was the right decision to make.”
I think it was really hard to know what a par score was, given that the first game that we played on, it was a completely different track. Perhaps spinning a little bit more. And, you know, on that we thought, probably 220 might have been a good score, but the batters coming in, sort of said that 270- 2 80 might be a good score on the wicket. Then obviously losing a couple of wickets, in that middle order. We felt 250 was sort of a target. And we, you know, fortunately got there in the end, but You never feel like it’s enough with players like Tamim Iqbal, who can come out and take the game away,” added the New Zealand all-rounder.
Sodhi, who is 183 cm tall, is a bit unusual as leg-spinner with his height but the bowler thinks the extra height gives him some advantage contrary to popular belief.
“I suppose a lot of the really successful new age leg spins are probably a lot shorter than what I am and sort of can get skid, get the stumps and play all the time. And I’ve always sort of like thought maybe my bounce could play against me sometimes because one, you know, sometimes I don’t actually hit the stumps. And sometimes on the slow wickets I can sit into the wicket a little bit more so.”
Leg-spin is always regarded as a difficult art and people think leg-spinners are expensive. But it is the rise of T20s that gave an unprecedented upheaval to the trade. Sodhi himself became number one ranked bowler in the format back in 2018 while people like Rashid Khan, Adil Rashid are ruling the roost. Sodhi acknowledged Shane Warne, the greatest leg spinners of all time for this and believes he may contribute to his side by delivering many more match winning efforts.
“When I was growing up it was Shane Warne. You always wanted to be like that. I guess guys are exposed to so many different types of, you know, media nowadays, you can see a lot of guys from a young age, they find something that they really enjoy. You know, Rashid Khan is playing a big role with that at the moment.
So, um, it’s great to be in that company. you know, I still, still feel like I’ve got a lot, a lot of sorts of, you know, miles on my legs. And so, so hopefully you can, you know, produce some good match winning performances for New Zealand over the years.”