Alex Hales Takes on Teammate Sam Billings over Deepti Sharma's Charlie Dean Run Out at Lord's

England cricketer Alex Hales corrected his teammate Sam Billings after the former questioned the ‘spirit of the game’ in the light of Indian all-rounder Deepti Sharma running out Charlie Dean at the non-striker’s end.

Deepti dismissed Dean in a controversial manner as India defeated Egland by 16 runs in the third ODI at Lord’s to and complete a 3-0 clean sweep on Saturday.

An emotional Dean broke down in tears when her dismissal was confirmed before sportingly shaking hands with her opponents.

Despite being allowed under cricket’s rules, running out a non-striker backing up has long been regarded as unsporting by many within the game.

Sam Billings took to social media to post: “There’s surely not a person who has played the game that thinks this is acceptable? Just not cricket.

“Well within the laws but not in the spirit. Just my opinion the law should be changed back to a warning system or penalty runs for excessive backing up for eg. Safe to say a few people disagree."

Billings shared a picture: “Not even looking at the other end in delivery stride"

Alex Hales replied to Billings’ post: “It shouldn’t be difficult for the non striker to stay in their crease til the ball has left the hand."

What the LAW Says –

MCC Law 41.16.1: “If the non-striker is out of his/her ground at any time from the moment the ball comes into play until the instant when the bowler would normally have been expected to release the ball, the non-striker is liable to be run out.

“In these circumstances, the non-striker will be out run out if he/she is out of his/her ground when his/her wicket is put down by the bowler throwing the ball at the stumps or by the bowler’s hand holding the ball, whether or not the ball is subsequently delivered."

ICC had earlier announced changes to Playing Conditions on September 20, which will come into effect on October 1.

“The Playing Conditions follow the Laws in moving this method of effecting a run out from the ‘Unfair Play’ section to the ‘Run out’ section," ICC said in a statement.

(With inputs from Agencies)

Get the latest Cricket News, Schedule and Cricket Live Scores here