‘She was never thinking about bowling that ball’: James Anderson once again slams Deepti Sharma over run-out incident

The non-striker getting run out while backing up too far ahead before the bowler has even released the ball is not a “legitimate dismissal,” according to England pacer James Anderson.

In a recent interaction on BBC’s Tailenders podcast he engaged in an extensive discussion on it, while citing the example of the recent Deepti Sharma-Charlie Dean episode.

Deepti Sharma ran Charlie Dean out during the third and final women’s ODI between India and England, and this method of dismissal has since been the subject of intense discussion among cricket enthusiasts. 

During the third and final ODI between India and England, which also happened to be Jhulan Goswami’s farewell appearance, Sharma performed a run-out as Dean left the crease even before the spinner threw the ball.

“Well, you know what? I thought, I knew we were going to talk about this today. So, on the train, on the way down, I thought ‘right, I’m going to just get my thoughts together and try and eloquently lay my views out for everyone’. Within 30 seconds of thinking about it, I was fuming. It just infuriates me those people, I mean it infuriates me just because I think it’s because I’ve been brought up, you know, in teams where we just wouldn’t even consider doing something like that. And yes, it’s in the laws of the game right now and they have obviously changed it so it’s now a run-out,” Anderson said.

“I think now I really hope that players stay in their crease, just don’t give people the option of doing it. I feel so much for Charlie Dean because she got herself in a position where she could have possibly won the game for England. She managed the game situation brilliantly, I don’t think she was trying to steal a run, she just drifted and that is a natural thing for the batter to do, to walk along with the bowler.

“The issue for me was that Deepti was never thinking about bowling that ball. She was watching Charlie Dean the whole way and the moment she stepped out; she ran her out. That is what frustrates me about that dismissal. There has been a chat about giving warnings and the England camp talked about how there were no warnings. I don’t see it as a legitimate dismissal when I play cricket. Where is the skill in that? It is just a sneaky way of getting someone out, I do not like it,” he added.

Anderson went on to say that the Indian team was feeling remorseful as a result of their expulsion. He alleged that the players didn’t even look Dean in the eyes.

“Charlie Dean was in tears, the handshake from the Indian team, there was no compassion there. They did not even look her in the eye, if there was guilt about the dismissal, then don’t do it then. India had won the series; it was not as if the series was on the line. It left a bitter taste for me, I don’t know. It is not about being me an England player, if I was watching the match between two neutral teams, I still would not have liked it,” said the pacer.

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