The second T20I between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh witnessed a controversial moment early in the innings, raising questions about the application of the DRS (Decision Review System). 

Sri Lanka’s assistant coach, Naveed Nawaz, expressed his disappointment with the overturned caught-behind decision of Bangladeshi batsman Soumya Sarkar, suggesting it played a pivotal role in the game’s outcome.

Bangladesh got off to a good start in chase of 166 to level the series with Soumya Sarkar and Litton Das forming a 68-run partnership.

But that partnership wasn’t without controversy as in the first ball of the fourth over, Soumya was given out, caught behind, off the bowling of Binura Fernando.

The left-hand batter immediately went for a review after that, and third umpire Masudur Rahman deemed there to be a gap between bat and ball even though there was a spike on the Snikco meter. 

The on-field decision of out by umpire Gazi Sohel was overturned as the third umpire Masudur explained that the spike happened after the ball had passed the bat and there was a clear gap between bat and ball.

This caused the Sri Lankan players to get very upset over the decision with their Test opener Dimuth Karunarantne also posting about the decision on his X account with pictures showing the Snicko meter spike and the caption “How (did) he overturn this decision?”

After the match, Sri Lanka’s assistant coach Naveed Newaz spoke to the media and revealed that they would send a written complaint to the match referee, asking for an explanation of the decision.

“I don’t know if the third umpire had a different set of images from what we saw. Our images showed that there was a clear spike so we will take it up with the match referee,” he said.