Sophia Dunkley struck the winning boundary with three overs to spare as England overcame India and the rain at Lord’s to level the one-day international series, but that was only half the story in a match which was always in danger of being overshadowed by an incident which took place three years ago, the last time India played at this ground.
If you’ve not yet seen the blockbuster trailer directed by Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha, shot at Lord’s by the England and Wales Cricket Board to promote its 2025 summer of cricket, make sure to search it out. It’s a slightly odd piece of theatre involving Heather Knight, Lauren Filer and Danni Wyatt-Hodge, which culminates in Wyatt-Hodge attempting to run out Filer with a samosa.
None of the above were actually on show at Lord’s on Saturday – Knight is injured, Wyatt-Hodge is not in the ODI squad, and Filer was dropped for this fixture in favour of Em Arlott – but the key players on this stage were actually a different pair. Because, of course, the “Whack It Like Wyatt-Hodge” trailer was gently poking fun at the storm which erupted in September 2022, when Deepti Sharma controversially ran out Charlie Dean at the non-striker’s end.
On Saturday, therefore, there was inevitably a certain frisson when Deepti came to the crease with India 72 for five, and quickly found herself facing Dean. A crowd that had patiently sat through the four-hour rain delay, which meant the match was reduced to 29 overs a side, were suddenly on the edge of their seats.
Deepti narrowly survived the first ball of Dean’s second spell, which turned sharply and beat her bat. But she then saw off her remaining 11 balls without theatrics – eventually progressing to an unbeaten 30 as she tried to wrestle back some advantage for India, who struggled to 143 for eight on a pitch made stodgy by the rain.
Dean had to be content with holding on to a catch at extra cover to see off Smriti Mandhana for 42, after earlier taking the return catch proffered up by Jemimah Rodrigues. Sophie Ecclestone, meanwhile, took three for 27, including rattling the stumps of Harmanpreet Kaur after Sophia Dunkley had twice let off the India captain at cover.
Perhaps this match might pass without controversy, despite the recent tensions between these sides (Pratika Rawal was fined 10% of her match fee this week after barging Ecclestone and Filer during the first ODI at Southampton)? No: it was simply biding its time. The real drama came in the second act, in the fifth over of England’s run chase, when Tammy Beaumont appeared to deliberately kick the ball out of the way of the wicketkeeper, Richa Ghosh. Ghosh appealed for Beaumont to be given out obstructing the field, the umpires referred it upstairs, but Jacqueline Williams adjudged that Beaumont had merely been making her way back to her crease after deciding against taking a single.
“Richa [Ghosh] and Jemi [Rodrigues] definitely felt that maybe she kicked it, but the umpires referred it and it was not out,” Mandhana said. As for the fact that the bowler who sent down the ball in question happened to be Deepti Sharma? “We cracked a joke about Lord’s and Deepti.”
after newsletter promotion
Amy Jones described the incident as “weird”. “I’ve never been out there for one of those before,” she said. “Tammy had no intent of actually obstructing them, she was just trying to get back into her crease.”
Beaumont added just nine more runs before Sneh Rana trapped her leg-before, attempting a reverse sweep, but – after a brief further delay for rain, in which five more overs were lost and England’s target was revised to 115 – an unbeaten 46 from Jones ensured England eventually got across the line with relative ease. That was despite an attempt at time-wasting by India, who referred a not-out caught-behind decision against Dunkley, despite Ghosh being overheard on the stump microphone telling Harmanpreet that Dunkley had not made contact with the ball. “We tried not to get drawn into it,” Jones said.
The series decider takes place at Durham on Tuesday: don’t be surprised if there is more drama still to come.
