by alfie » Mon Sep 26, 2022 5:56 am
Finish of that last England/India ODI really stirred up a hornet's nest...
Within the rules , yes ; but was it necessary ? Watching a clip of it , seems to me Dean wasn't trying for any special advantage : she still has her bat in the crease with Deepti in her delivery stride. Reasonable expectation that the bowler completes her arm action , I'd have thought ; but the bowler appears to have never intended to do so as she stops and removes the bails to effect the run out with Dean moving down the pitch.
I wasn't watching the game so cannot say whether there had been evidence previously that the England bats were pushing the envelope with backing up . But it certainly looks as if this run out was a premeditated action , carried out with no previous warning , in a somewhat tight game ending situation. Honestly can't say I like it.
Have also re-watched other similar incidents and I would suggest , for example , that that Ashwin run out of Jos Buttler is not a fair comparison - clearly pre-warned , rather blatant ground stealing . This looks different.
Confession : in my youth , I executed a mankad myself , at the suggestion of a teammate who had spotted the batsman leaving his ground consistently early . We didn't warn him in advance ; so I guess it was a bit of an ambush (caused a near riot in the grandstand too !). As I say , I was rather young at the time - and as I recall there was previous bad blood between the two teams from incidents earlier in the match - but that isn't really an excuse in my (now more mature) eyes.
Even a half century later it remains one of my greatest regrets and not something I would contemplate again. If I think a batsman is overdoing it now , I might gently warn them : but actually seeking to scam a wicket this way just seems "off". Pity to see a a good ODI series ended like this.