The third and final ODI between England Women and India Women witnessed high drama and the match came to an end on a rather controversial note after all-rounder Deepti Sharma ran Charlie Dean out at the non-striker's end as she was backing up too far ahead when the ball was not even delivered out of Deepti's hand. However, this dismissal has once again hogged the limelight, dividing the cricket fraternity and many are questioning whether this mode of dismissal is keeping with the "spirit of cricket".
Many took to Twitter to criticise this mode of dismissal, and in trying to defend India's act, some fans made a rather vague argument, saying whether the ball deflecting off the bat of Ben Stokes and going for a boundary in the 2019 World Cup final was keeping with the spirit of the game.
It is important to note that in the final over of the World Cup final, Ben Stokes had dived to make his crease, and the ball deflected from his bat to go for a four. In the end, England had won the World Cup on the basis of the boundary-countback rule.
Seeing this argument of fans, Stokes tweeted: "Why are people comparing a ball deflecting of my bat to a mankad."
It is important to note that this mode of dismissal is not known as 'Mankad', and it is used commonly after India's Vinoo Mankad ran out Bill Brown when he was backing up too far.
On Monday, after reaching India, Deepti revealed that her side gave warnings to Dean, but when they saw her still venturing out of her crease, they decided to run her out.
"It was our plan because she was leaving the crease repeatedly. We have even warned her. So, whatever we did was according to the rules and regulations," Deepti Sharma said.
"We had told the umpires too. But she was still doing it, so we had no other option," she added.