England cricketers, former and current, went off on Indian women’s all-rounder Deepti Sharma after she ran out Charlie Dean to help India win the third and final ODI at Lord’s on Saturday and pocket the series 3-0.
This was the last international match of India bowling legend Jhulan Goswami, who called time on her exemplary career with 255 wickets in 204 ODIs.
However, Deepti Sharma’s run out of Charlie Dean, who backed out too far at the non-striker’s end to finish the match led to England cricketers calling the whole incident against the ‘spirit of the game’ and keeper-batter Sam Billings was the first to call out this on Twitter.
He quoted a tweet in which there was a video of the incident and Charlie Dean crying after her dismissal for 47 with England needing just 17 more runs to win the match and save face.
Billings tweeted: “There’s surely not a person who has played the game that thinks this is acceptable? Just not cricket…”
To this, Alex Hales, who recently made a comeback to the England T20I setup during their ongoing series against Pakistan, remarked that it's not difficult for batters to stay at the crease until the bowler releases the ball.
He posted: “It shouldn’t be difficult for the nonstriker to stay in their crease til the ball has left the hand…”
Billings chipped in with a sarcastic remark towards Hales in his response. He wrote, “not like you to be different Alex.”
India whitewashed England 3-0 for the first time in ODIs in their own backyard.