Women's Cricket
'Spirit of cricket' claims multiple victims as Mannat Kashyap's act fails to get captain's approval
After Mannat Kashyap ran a batter out at the non-striker's end during an U19 match for India, captain Shafali Verma recalled the dismissed batter. Both of them were criticised.
Mannat Kashyap (right) failed to find her captain Shafali Verma's approval after running the non-striker out.
There's many things on which 'spirit of cricket' divides opinion, but the one thing about it that could unite all cricketers is how easy it is to fall foul of it.
At least three cricketers - India's U19 players Mannat Kashap, Shafali Verma, and England's Danielle Wyatt - managed to come under the crossfire due to one incident during India's U19 match against South Africa on Tuesday.
18-year-old left-arm spinner Mannat Kashyap ran South Africa's Jemma Botha out at the non-striker's end during the home team's chase. But that is hardly where the drama ended.
The moment drew a reaction from England international Danielle Watt:
Adding to the drama, India recalled the batter back.
This too managed to draw some criticism due to the complicated definition of 'spirit of cricket', especially in recent times when it comes to the act of running out the non-striker. India's captain Shafali Verma might have been doing something considered to be traditionally chivalrous, but in these troubled times, she too was not spared.
Mannat Kashyap drew considerable praise on social media for her game awareness too, as these posts criticised Wyatt's reaction:
Interesting to note here is the match situation when this incident happened.
Unlike when Deepti Sharma had run the non-striker out against England last month, putting the world of cricket on edge, India did not stand to lose anything by not taking a wicket at that point. Chasing the target of 138, South Africa were reeling at 65/7 after 16.3 overs when it happened.
Mannat Kashyap, a recent inclusion in the India U19 side, has some history with this mode of dismissal too. She did it against Izzy Gaze against New Zealand Development team last month itself.
The spinner looks up to Indian senior captain Harmanpreet Kaur, and is the younger cousin of one of Harmanpreet's closest friends. While Harmanpreet backed Deepti after the controversy manufactured by the English press last month, Mannat did not find such backing from Shafali, someone who was part of the senior team when Harmanpreet had backed Deepti.
India U19 will be playing four more T20Is against SA U19 over the next few days before they open their U-19 World Cup campaign against South Africa on January 14.
