Heather Knight denies India’s Deepti Sharma gave Mankad warning

Heather Knight, the England captain, has denied India’s Deepti Sharma repeatedly warned Charlie Dean before opting to Mankad her for the decisive wicket to win the third one-day international at Lord’s on Saturday.

“The game is over, Charlie was dismissed legitimately,” Knight wrote on Twitter. “India were deserved winners of the match and the series. But no warnings were given.

“They don’t need to be given, so it hasn’t made the dismissal any less legitimate. But if they’re comfortable with the decision to affect the run out, India shouldn’t feel the need to justify it by lying about warnings.”

Knight’s tweets were in response to an interview given by Sharma on Monday at Kolkata airport, when she said the Mankad had been a deliberate “plan” against Dean, who – according to analysis carried out by Peter Della Penna of ESPNcricinfo – left the crease early 72 times in her innings.

“We had warned her also,” Sharma said. “We did it according to the rules and guidelines. We told the umpires, but she was still there so we couldn’t do anything.”

The dismissal came in the 44th over of the ODI, when Dean and England’s No 11, Freya Davies, looked to be taking England to an unlikely win. From 118 for nine, chasing 170, Dean and Davies had steered England to within 17 runs of victory only for Sharma to pull out of her bowling action and remove the bails to end the match.

The India captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, gave no indication on Saturday that her side had issued warnings to Dean, nor that they had consulted with the umpires. “I wasn’t aware [she was going to run her out],” she said.

Knight is out injured with a hip injury but was present as a spectator. Last July, she was dismissed by Sharma in controversial circumstances, run out