I would definitely not have called Mathews back: Flower

London, Sep 27 (ANI): England's team director Andy Flower has said that he would definitely not recall Sri Lankan batsman Angelo Mathews to the crease when asked if he supported skipper Andrew Strauss' compassionate decision to recall Mathews.

"I would definitely not have called him back. He ran into the bowler, simple as that," Then Telegraph quoted Flower, as saying.

Flower softened the blow with some praise for Strauss, describing the captain as "a good man who I trust completely."

Strauss was fortunate on Friday that Mathews made no further contribution to the Sri Lankan score, edging a catch to the wicketkeeper in the following over.

But if he had stayed at the crease for another half-an-hour, Sri Lanka would have batted through their 50 overs.

With another 20 runs on the target, all that would have changed.

"We watched a lot of footage and we worked out that when Mendis had three fingers on the top of the ball, it was going to go away from you. And then we got out there and it was absolutely hopeless! He was pretty hard to read but we were fortunate that the pitch wasn't a real turner," said Paul Collingwood after the game.

England would be ill advised to offer South Africa any second chances when the two sides meet at Centurion on Sunday. (ANI)