The third and final ODI between India women and England women caused quite a stir after Deepti Sharma ran out Charlie Dean at the non-striker’s end after she ventured too far ahead out of the crease even when the ball was not delivered by Deepti. The ‘spirit of cricket’ debate once again erupted after that, and fans and pundits are still debating on this particular mode of dismissal. After reaching India, Deepti revealed that Team India gave Dean warnings, but upon noticing that she was still going out of her crease, the team decided to run her out.
However, England captain Heather Knight, who missed the series with injury, on Twitter said that Team India did not give any warnings and they should not be “lying”.
So, it was pretty clear that Harmanpreet would be asked about this ahead of the Women’s T20 Asia Cup. The India captain gave a clear-cut answer to the questions being asked regarding this mode of dismissal.
“See, we were noticing these things from the last couple of games. She was taking a long stride, she was taking undue advantage. I think it was Deepti’s awareness, she was noticing it and we were discussing it,” said Harmanpreet while replying to an NDTV question during a virtual press conference.
“But it wasn’t in our plans to get her out like that. Everybody was there to win the game. Whenever you are on the ground, you just want to win at any cost. What’s most important is that you have to play within the rules. Whatever we have done, it is within the rules. Whatever happened, has happened,” she said.
While replying to another question regarding how special the series win was especially after transpired at Lord’s Cricket Ground, Harmanpreet said: “Everything was planned for this series, we were working on something. When we went to England, we did not think that we are here to create any history. When you have the plans, and you are working towards something, the results will come automatically.”
The Marylebone Cricket Club — the custodians of the laws of cricket – also had come out with a statement clarifying their stance on the subject. The MCC had earlier this year moved the mode of dismissal from the ‘unfair play’ section of their laws to the ‘run out’ section, and the ICC is set to also adopt that change from October 1.
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“MCC this year announced amendments to the laws of cricket to move being run out at the non-striker’s end, from law 41 unfair play, to law 38 run out,” the statement stated.
It further reaffirmed that the onus was on the batters to not leave their crease after Deepti’s run-out of Charlie Dean.
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