Sylhet (Bangladesh): In India’s 3-0 ODI series sweep over England at Lord’s, the run-out of Charlie Dean at the non-striker’s end by off-spin all-rounder Deepti Sharma to win the match by 16 runs kickstarted a never-ending debate on social media.
After returning to India earlier in the week, Deepti said at the Kolkata airport that Charlie was warned a few times for wandering outside the crease at non-striker’s end. Her claim was outrightly denied by injured England captain Heather Knight, who added that the Indian team were lying about giving warnings.
On the eve of the start of India’s campaign at Women’s T20 Asia Cup against Sri Lanka, captain Harmanpreet Kaur stated she wants to move on from the run-out episode and focus on what’s coming ahead for her team.
“See, we were noticing these things from the last couple of games. She was taking a long stride; she was taking undue advantage. I think it was her (Deepti’s) awareness, she was noticing it and we were discussing about these things. But it wasn’t in our plans to get her out like that.”
“Everybody was there to win the game. Whenever you are on the ground, you just want to win at any cost. What’s most important is that you have to play within the rules. Whatever we have done, it was within the rules. Whatever happened, has happened. Enough discussion has happened on this and we just need to move on,” said Harmanpreet in the pre-match press conference.
Keeping the run-out aside, India had unprecedented success in the ODI series against England, winning the 50-over series in the country after 23 years and registering a clean sweep over the hosts’ on their backyard for the first time. Harmanpreet credited sticking to the processes and being sorted over it for the fantastic result in England.
“When we left for England, we were looking to play good cricket. We didn’t put any pressure on ourselves like we have to be great and do really well. So, we were going through a process in our practice sessions. Whatever we were doing, we were very calculative about it and knew what we were doing. It was not like we were just doing the practice and don’t know what we are doing. Everything was planned for this series, we were working on something.”
“When we went to England, we did not think about we are here to create any history. We were just going through what we have to do. When you have the plans, and you are working towards something, the results will come automatically. The results which came were something for which we had waited for a long time and were not surprised by what we have done. It was a team performance and whosoever got a chance to perform, did very well.”
Apart from leading the side to 3-0 triumph in ODIs, Harmanpreet finished the series as the leading run-getter, with 211 runs in three innings. This included an unbeaten 74 in the first match at Hove, before smacking a magnificent 143 not out off 111 balls at Canterbury, a knock which reminded many fans of her sensational 171 not out in 2017 ODI World Cup semifinal against Australia. She attributed her good run of form to responsibility of leading the team.
“Since the time I have started playing cricket, responsibility has been something which I have really enjoyed a lot. Since the time I got the responsibility to lead the team full-time, which is the biggest responsibility a player can get and I am enjoying the most. On top of this, the team-mates, support staff, BCCI and selectors – everyone have appreciated a lot and are working together.”
“When you work together as a team, you always get good results. We just now need support because the only one thing left after this is performance and with that coming, the focus then only remains on performance. We talk with all the team-mates that you all have each other’s back and just need to go and express ourselves.”
