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An incident involving the West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard sparked controversy during the first ODI between West Indies and Sri Lanka in Antigua. All of it unfolded when Danushka Gunathilaka was controversially given out due to obstruction of the field. Pollard, the West Indian captain, had refused to take back the appeal and the Sri Lankan was eventually adjudged out.
In a recent turn of events, Gunathilaka has revealed that Pollard came up to him to apologise after the match. Notably, the visiting side looked pretty much in control with both their openers unbeaten, having completed their respective half-centuries. While Pollard introduced himself to first get rid of Dimuth Karunaratne caught and bowled, in his second over Gunathilaka was dismissed. Gunathilaka played the ball, went a few steps forward before deciding not to take a run. However, before Pollard could collect the ball to throw, the Sri Lankan opener's feet touched the ball.
Read More: Gunathilaka controversially given out for obstructing field against WI
Pollard realised Gunathilaka wasn't at fault later
An angry and animated Pollard appealed to the on field umpires for obstruction of the field, consequently the on-field officials gave a soft-signal as out before referring it to the third umpire. The TV umpire, too, ruled the batsman out even as Sri Lankan team management seemed unhappy with the call. After the match, Pollard had a word with Gunathilaka and told him that only after he saw the video, he realised that it wasn't the opener's mistake.
"He (Pollard) apologized. He told me he didn’t see that properly at that time, and only after he saw the video he realized I didn’t do anything," Danushka Gunathilaka said in an interview with Sri Lankan news outlet NewsWire.