Deepti sparks deja vu moment in renewed Lord’s drama

Deepti sparks deja vu moment in renewed Lord's drama

India's rivalry with England, if ever made into a film or book, would have many scenes set at Lord's.

The Home of Cricket witnessed India's heartbreak in 2017 when they lost the World Cup final to England by nine runs. Five years later, the two teams returned to the iconic venue to bid farewell to Jhulan Goswami. That match is now more remembered for the controversy surrounding Deepti Sharma's run out of Charlie Dean at the non-striker's end. Nearly three years later, another controversy simmered, but was quickly doused. India appealed for 'obstructing the field' against Tammy Beaumont, but the appeal was turned down.

The incident happened in the fifth over of England's chase. Beaumont flicked the ball to the right of midwicket. Rodrigues fired in a low throw back to the keeper's end. Beaumont turned back and had her left foot back in the crease. It was when she moved her right leg forward that Ghosh thought she deliberately got in the way of the throw. Ghosh appealed, joined by Rodrigues. The on-field umpires took the call upstairs after a lengthy discussion. The TV umpire ruled it an unintentional contact, turning down India's appeal.

In Deepti's following over, she pulled out of her delivery stride. This is a common tactic for Deepti in white-ball cricket. Beaumont assumed it was a warning for backing up excessively, but she wasn't in this instance. "Not again" uttered Beaumont as Deepti walked back to the top of her bowling mark, hinting at the Dean episode.

"Doesn't happen, right, that you come to Lords and that question is not asked?" Mandhana said with a coy smile when asked if India's previous infamous trip to Lord's was revisited within the group. "But, yeah, we didn't really think anything about that incident. Only today when there was one random appeal for Tammy Beaumont obstructing the field.. and again Deepti was bowling, that's when we cracked the joke that Lords and Deepti have a – I don't know how do I term it in words. But we had a small joke around it, that's it.

"The whole match, last time when we won, of course was overshadowed quite a lot because of that one incident. But I would say the way we all actually played cricket in terms of that whole series. One incident cannot overshadow it. And the chat was only about how good we played and we have to just keep continuing that," the India vice-captain added.

Mandhana side-stepped from sharing her thoughts on the Beaumont incident. "I was not at a really good angle, to be fair. It was not visible at all. Of course, Richa and Jemi definitely felt that maybe she kicked it or something. But they referred it and it was not out. I'm sure that they would have seen all the angles. That's the only view I have of it. But I was in no angle, to be fair, to see what happened. At mid-on, you don't see what exactly happened from that way. Not being diplomatic, but genuinely, I did not see it."

The suggestion that Deepti pulled out in the following over after a potential internal discussion with teammates was brushed off too. "She actually pulls out quite a lot," Mandhana said with a laugh. "She doesn't do it only just for that kind of dismissal, but she has a habit… Maybe she wants to watch the batter? She has her own strategy.

"But, yeah, it was not discussed at all. Why would we discuss all of those things? We came here to play good cricket and that was the only discussion which we had. And if you've seen Deepthi bowl, she does that quite a lot. It's more to do with seeing what the batter is doing, maybe."

Beaumont was batting on 25 at the time of both those incidents in quick succession, and was eventually dismissed by Sneh Rana after a run-a-ball 34 that helped set up England's series-levelling eight-wicket win by DLS method. Her opening partner Amy Jones, who remained unbeaten on 46 until the end, backed Beaumont after the game.

"It was weird," Jones said of the incident. "I've never been out there for one of those before, I don't think. The umpires were happy that Tammy was in her crease, so she wasn't trying to not get run out, but obviously they appealed for obstructing the field. I learned that even if you're in, you can still be out but obviously Tammy had no intent of actually obstructing them. I think she was just trying to get back into her crease, so all okay in the end. She didn't know if it could result in a wicket or not."