Sri Lankan batsman Roshen Silva stunned after being slapped with five-run penalty for simple mishap

Sri Lankan batsman Roshen Silva has been left bemused after a bizarre cricket rule resulted in him being slapped with a five-run penalty for a simple error. 

Silva was in the middle of a crucial 10th wicket partnership with Akila Dananjaya when he nudged a ball through the gully region and expected it to go for a boundary. 

However, upon realisation that it wouldn't reach the rope, Silva came back to complete a second run without having grounded his bat properly at the non-strikers end.

The field umpire Marais Erasmus noticed that Silva did not ground his bat and called the run short before penalising Sri Lanka five runs. 

According to the ICC's law 18.5.1, an umpire is permitted to penalise a side five runs if they believe the batsman deliberately failed to make ground.

The law was so unfamiliar that it left the English commentary duo of Michael Atherton and David Lloyd stumped.

"I’ve never seen anything like that penalty run call in my 50-odd years in cricket," Lloyd said.

"We were all baffled when the umpires signalled dead ball.

"It just looked like a good piece of fielding by Moeen Ali, but the umpires were very sharp in spotting an infringement."

Silva eventually finished with a vital knock of 85 that guided Sri Lanka to a first-innings lead of 46 runs after looking like they would cough up a first-innings lead early on in the innings.