Both Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Mashrafe Mortaza made light of the on-field collision between India skipper and Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman during the first one-dayer, saying it was not a big deal and such incidents can happen in a match.
The incident happened in the second ball of the 25th over when Dhoni barged into Mustafizur while trying to steal a quick single. The left-arm pacer had come on the way of the Indian skipper and the powerful collision saw him leave the field to get some treatment.
Nasir Hossain then completed the over, before Mustafizur returned in the 37th over to dismiss Suresh Raina, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja and complete his five wicket haul on debut.
Dhoni said: “The bowler (Mustafizur) thought I would move away while I thought he would. But as none of us did, we collided because I had to take the closest path possible getting to the other end.
“If I am going around the bowler, more often than not they’ll get the batsman out. So either I should have moved to the right or he should have moved to the left but both of us thought maybe the other guy will, but we ended up with a, what you can say, a typical kind of a street clash. Thankfully he didn’t get injured, and I didn’t get injured.
“I think this can happen in any match. It’s nothing big. I spoke to him later,” said the Indian captain with a smile during the post-match press-conference on Thursday night.
Mashrafe also did not want to drag the issue.
“Things like this can happen on the field during a match. We all shake hands at the end of the day and such situations can be discussed with the on-field umpires. It’s nothing serious,” he said.
India lost the first ODI by 79 runs allowing Bangladesh to take 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
