Australia's Mitchell Starc warned England captain Jos Buttler to stay inside his crease during the third and final T20I of the three-match series on Friday (October 14). Buttler, who has been run out at the non-striker's end twice in his career, almost suffered the same fate for the third time but Starc chose to let him off with a warning.
The incident happened on the fourth ball of the fifth over, when the left-arm pacer induced an inside edge of Dawid Malan and the ball went back to Starc, who turned around quickly to warn Buttler to get back in his crease until he releases the ball.
In a video shared by Sony Sports, the conversation between Buttler and Starc was not clearly audible but Starc said, “I am not Deepti, but I might do it,” to which Buttler responded suggesting he did not leave his crease early, “Don't think I was,” he said.
Deepti Sharma of India had recently run out Charlie Dean of England at Lord's in the third Women's ODI, leading to several strong reactions from all parts of the cricketing world with many standing up for Deepti, while few particularly from England called it an act against the 'Spirit of Cricket'.
Deepti was well within her rights to run out the non-striker as per the laws of the game, and it was confirmed by the MCC with an official statement.
Coming back to the T20I series between Australia and England, the dead rubber was called off due to rain after the game had been reduced to 12 overs per-side, as the visitors won the series 2-0.
Aaron Finch, Australian captain, was asked about the incident to which he replied: "I wasn't aware, had no idea about that. I think if batters get a warning then it's fair game after that. That would go for most teams, I assume, if you give the batter a warning that they are getting a little too much ground before the ball is bowled. But I'm not a big fan of it, to be fair, personally."
