Was Deepti Sharma running Charlie Dean out at the non-striker's end at Lord's on Saturday a plan India had worked out in advance? Or was it an instinctive decision?
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According to Deepti, who stopped in her bowling stride and whipped off the bails at the non-striker's end to complete a 3-0 sweep over England, it was a plan, but one that was formulated after repeated warnings to Dean.
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With ENG-W needing 17 runs to win after their last-wicket pair of Dean and Freya Davies had put on 35 crucial runs, Deepti stopped in her bowling stride and upon noticing that Dean was outside her crease, whipped the bails off.
"It was historic for sure. For the first time, we defeated England in their own country and won the series 3-0. That was our plan because she was repeatedly doing it and we had warned them too. We had also informed the umpires. But still she was right there so there wasn't much we could do. We did everything according to the rules and guidelines," Deepti told the media upon the team's arrival in India.
India women’s team captain Harmanpreet Kaur in the post-match presentation and press conference, had said that her side had committed “no crime.”
“Today whatever we have done I don’t think it was any crime,” Harmanpreet said at the post-match press conference.
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The Marylebone Cricket Club, the custodians of the laws of cricket also came out with a statement yet again 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.
The third ODI was also pace great Jhulan Goswami's last international match. "Every team wants to win. We wanted to give her good farewell by winning the game. As a team, whatever effort we could put, we gave," Deepti said.