T20 World Cup 2021: Lahiru Kumara, Liton Das involved in heated verbal exchange before being separated

The T20 World Cup 2021 match between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in Sharjah on Sunday took a very ugly turn when Bangladesh batter Liton Das and his Sri Lankan counterpart Lahiru Kumara were involved in a war of words, before eventually needing to be separated by players from both teams. The incident took place towards the end of the sixth over when Kumara’s pitched-up delivery led Das in edging it to Dasun Shanaka, who completed the catch at mid-off. Liton was trying to drive that Kumara delivery, but hit the ball into Shanaka’s hands. As Liton was walking off, Kumara walked up to the Bangladesh opener and was seen exchanging a few words with him. Liton snapped back, and things turned from bad to worse when both players tried to shove each other. Liton’s batting partner, Mohammad Naim, and Sri Lanka’s Chamika Karunaratne then came up to intervene and separate the players. “That is not what you want to see in a game of cricket,” one of the commentators were heard saying on air on official broadcaster Star Sports. Watch the video here:

Being put to bat first, knocks from Mohammad Naim (62) and Mushfiqur Rahim (57*) led Bangladesh to a challenging total of 171/4 from 20  overs. Sri Lanka were 85/4 after 11 overs, with Charith Asalanka (47*) looking confident at the crease.