Fleming defends ruthless run out

Fleming (left) was unrepentent after the run-out controversy

Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara (C) looks back at his batting partner as New Zealand players Jamie How (L), Shane Bond, Stephen Fleming and Daniel Vettori (R) prepare to leave the field at the end of the Sri Lankan innings on the third day of the first test cricket match against New Zealand in Christchurch December 9, 2006. REUTERS/Simon Baker (NEW ZEALAND)

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said his team were within their rights in the run-out of Muttiah Muralitharan that helped secure the first Test. Murali had left his crease to celebrate Kumar Sangakkara's century when keeper Brendon McCullum removed the bails.

"The ball was still alive and the game doesn't stop when a player gets 100," Fleming said after the five-wicket win. You can't just wander off when the ball's in mid-air and if we'd had an overthrow I'm sure they'd take that."

Fleming's counterpart, Mahela Jayawardene, said the Sri Lanka team was wounded by the incident.

Last man Murali had helped add 27 with Sangakkara to take the Sri Lankan lead to 118, and many further runs could have had the home side struggling, particularly in view of their mini-collapse in chasing 119.

"The whole team is disappointed," Jayawardene told reporters, adding he would not pursue the matter further.

"Legally it was a run out, the ball was alive but we play in an age where we talk about the spirit of the game. Hopefully it won't happen again. It's not the way to play cricket."

Jayawardene had hoped to utilise his star spinner Muralitharan with runs on the board on a treacherous final day pitch, but instead the match was all over shortly after tea on day three.

"There was a bit of grass on the wicket but that doesn't mean you're playing only one day's cricket," the skipper lamented. We've got the best spinner in the world in our ranks and we have to give him the best opportunity to win us matches."

Fleming admitted it was unfortunate the incident should overshadow Sangakkara's 10th Test century, an innings in which he scored more than the rest of his teammates put together. "In one sense it's disappointing because it takes the gloss off one of the great hundreds I've seen," he said. "But I'm comfortable with it, the game doesn't stop because someone gets a hundred. It's a mistake in judgment from Muralitharan."

Black Caps keeper McCullum, who executed the coup de grace, had no regrets whatsoever. "After 109 Test matches (Murali's number of appearances) you know better than to walk out of your ground to celebrate a guy's hundred when the ball's still alive," he said. -BBC