England’s Dean in tears after Mankad run-out seals India’s ODI clean sweep
England’s Dean in tears after Mankad run-out seals India’s ODI clean sweep: On Saturday, India beat England in the final ODI at Lord’s by a score of 16 runs, but the game ended in controversy when Deepti Sharma ran out Charlie Dean at the non-strikers’ end, prompting boos from the fans.
Dean (47) methodically accumulated 35 runs with Freya Davies for the final wicket to give England hope, but Sharma’s intervention in the 44th over ended that possibility.
England had appeared hopeless after falling to 53 for five before the first drinks break was taken, chasing just 170.
Dean was emotional but stoically shook hands with the other team’s players and walked off as India rejoiced.
India’s captain Harmanpreet Kaur said, “I don’t think it was any wrongdoing; it’s part of the game.” It demonstrates that you are cognizant of the actions taken by hitters. I will support my teammates; she hasn’t broken any regulations.
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Kate Cross of England commented, “Ultimately, it is Deepti’s choice how she goes about that. I think that was a fantastic gesture by Deano if we’re talking about the true spirit of cricket.
The final match for Jhulan Goswami, 39, who has terrorized batters with her 5’11” body since 2002, was supposed to be the main event, but the incident threatened to overshadow it.
Despite being bowled for a golden duck by Freya Kemp, she went on to bowl five wicketless overs as the entire Lord’s crowd—both England and India fans—urged her to keep going.
They tried six times before she finally caught Alice Capsey at cover point, illustrating that you can teach an old dog new tricks.
After 25 overs, she finished her international cricket career by bowling Cross. Her fellow players surrounded her, and the spectators stood to applaud her performance.
Cross bowled Shafali Verma and Yastika Bhatia for ducks with late movement. She trapped Harmanpreet lbw for just four during an unplayable five-over opening performance on Wednesday at Canterbury, but England still lost.
T20
Smriti Mandhana (50), who had been batting confidently, was dismissed by Cross in the 22nd over when she edged a bouncer onto her stumps. Then, Sharma swept to 68 not out, leading her team back from the brink of defeat with the help of an aggressive Pooja Vastrakar (22), who also contributed to the victory, and completed the series sweep.
There will be a Test match at Trent Bridge and nighttime Twenty20 matches at Edgbaston, the Kia Oval, and Lord’s as part of England’s revamped multi-format
Women’s Ashes series next summer.
Moving return to the “home of cricket” is, on the one hand, long overdue; before, England had not played an international at Lord’s since the 2017 World Cup final.
The ECB’s bold move from smaller venues like Worcester and Hove (capacity: 5,000 and 6,000, respectively) to Edgbaston and the Oval (capacity: 25,000 and 27,500, respectively) is to be commended, and the turnout of 15,000 at Lord’s suggests that there is still a strong demand to see live women’s international cricket in London.
However, the pressure will be on to make next summer’s Women’s Ashes at least somewhat competitive if the goal is to attract a new generation of fans.
Neither of the last two meetings (at home in 2019 and on the road in 2021-22) ended in a win for England, as the final score was 4-12.
Players
The focus of England’s whole plan this summer has been preventing a repeat of those results in 2023. The roster has six newcomers (Lauren Bell, Alice Capsey, Freya Kemp, and Issy Wong) and two returnees (Alice Davison-Richards and Bryony Smith).
Yet reliability in this new England has remained difficult.
They had some success earlier in the summer against a stumbling South Africa, but that didn’t do them any good at the Commonwealth Games (zero medals), and now they’ve lost a bilateral series at home for the first time in 15 years to a team that isn’t Australia.
If you’re the England cricket team, you want to be winning games. Therefore, this is a frustrating period, as Cross put it.
Since Heather Knight’s hip injury in July, England’s biggest challenge when playing India has been a lack of a clear leader.
Nat Sciver grudgingly accepted the job for the Commonwealth Games. However, he bowed out of playing in the first T20 match against India three days before the match. He cited “emotional weariness” as his reason for withdrawing.
Amy Jones, who has never served as a captain in a game of 50-over cricket before, was surprisingly chosen for the position. As time progressed, she appeared more and more out of her element.
The application deadline has passed, so maybe tomorrow, a new coach will be able to make their imprint.
Meanwhile, England will pray for Knight’s speedy recovery before their upcoming winter international tour stop in the Caribbean. We can no longer afford to have the captaincy be a political football.