The man who has perhaps championed running out of the non-striker while backing up the most, Ravichandran Ashwin was active on Twitter with his views and opinions following the controversial end to the India women vs England women ODI at Lord’s on Saturday.
India spinner Deepti Sharma affected a run-out of England’s Charlotte Dean at the non-striker’s end while Dean had strolled outside the bowling crease before the ball had been delivered. Images put up on social media by the fans prove that Dean had been backing up throughout her innings and Deepti showed great awareness in this and ran Dean out the moment she saw an opportunity.
Dean’s was the last England wicket to fall when the hosts needed 17 runs off 33 balls while chasing 170. This once again sparked up a huge debate on social media with England cricketers Sam Billings, Stuart Broad and James Anderson being quite vocal in speaking against this mode of dismissal.
Billings admitted that this sort of dismissal was in the laws, but said it was not “acceptable”. Billings then put up a photo of Deepti in her bowling stride watching Dean move out of the bowling crease, to which Anderson said “Spot on. No intention of bowling the ball”
Jokingly, Billings commented: “Imagine how many more wickets you could get James”
Watching all this chaos was R Ashwin, who then decided to involve himself in the conversation of Billings and Anderson. The Indian off-spinner continued Billings’ point, and made his own by stating that the bowler should get the wickets in his column for his sharp presence of mind!
“In fact that’s a great idea. How about awarding that wicket to the bowler for “ presence of mind” under immense pressure and of course knowing the social stigma that he/she would have to deal with post doing it. How about a bravery award to go with it too @ICC?” Ashwin quote tweeted Billings’ tweet.
In fact that’s a great idea. How about awarding that wicket to the bowler for “ presence of mind” under immense pressure and of course knowing the social stigma that he/she would have to deal with post doing it. How about a bravery award to go with it too @ICC ? https://t.co/9PqqetnnGw
— Ashwin 🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) September 25, 2022
There hasn’t been any reply yet from either of the two Englishmen in the conversation to Ashwin’s tweet.
On the contrary, Sam Billings’ England teammate Alex Hales supports the running out of a batter while backing up.
Being blunt and straight to the point, Hales commented: “It shouldn’t be difficult for the non striker to stay in their crease til the ball has left the hand…”
It shouldn’t be difficult for the non striker to stay in their crease til the ball has left the hand…
— Alex Hales (@AlexHales1) September 24, 2022
India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur showed her full support of Deepti and running out of the non-striker while backing up.
“Today whatever we have done I don’t think it was any crime. It is part of the game and it is an ICC rule and I think we just need to back our player,” Harmanpreet said during her post-match press conference.
“I’m actually very happy she was aware of that, and the batter she is taking too long a stride I think. I don’t think she has done something wrong and we just need to back her. Like I said, I don’t think we have done any crime. It’s part of the ICC rules, it’s called a run-out and we’ve done that.”
India won the series 3-0 and completed a grand farewell for legendary seamer Jhulan Goswami.
