The Indian women’s team created history as they beat England in the final match of the series, which was legendary pacer Jhulan Goswami’s final ODI, to register a historic 3-0 series whitewash over the hosts. However, one incident that overtook all the discussion was Deepti Sharma running out Charlotte Dean.
Dean was batting on 47, as she somewhat got England out of trouble as was having a crucial 10th wicket stand, as she almost got here team over the line. However, in a moment, that displayed a great presence of mind by Deepti Sharma, the all-rounder run Dean out even before completing her run-up, as the batter left her crease at the non-striker’s end.
According to the new rules of ICC, a dismissal like this which was termed as ‘Mankading’ earlier should be considered as a run out. However, many people called out Deepti Sharma for the run out, as they thought it was unethical.
England wicketkeeper-batsman Sam Billings too criticized Sharma on Twitter. “There’s surely not a person who has played the game that thinks this is acceptable? Just not cricket,” he wrote. To this England opener Alex Hales, replied that the batsman should not move out of the crease till the ball hasn’t left the hand of the bowler.
It shouldn’t be difficult for the non striker to stay in their crease till the ball has left the hand,” he added. In fact, when another Twitter user accused Alex Hales of being biased towards India, the batsman had another cheeky reply to give. The ball didn’t leave the hand though.. I’m not talking necessarily about this incident, but just the ‘mankad’ issue in general. It wouldn’t be an issue if batters simply remained in the crease until the ball has left the hand”, the opener said.
India captain Harmanpreet Kaur too came out in support of Deepti Sharma in the incident. It’s part of the game I don’t think we have done something new. It shows your awareness, what batters are doing. I will back my players, she hasn’t done something outside the rules. At the end of the day a win is a win and we will take that,” said Kaur in the post-match press conference.
