The Indian women’s team pulled off a brilliant win against their English counterparts in the second T20I played at the Hove’s County Ground on Sunday. But the match was marred with a controversial run-out which played a crucial role in deciding the result of the match. The incident took place in the 14th over of the second innings when Amy Jones struck the ball down the ground and Heather Knight lost her wicket.

Indian off-spinner Deepti Sharma went to her right to collect the ball but it got deflected off her right leg towards the stumps. Non-striker Heather Knight turned around to in an attempt too get back to the crease, but Deepti unintentionally blocked the batter’s path while the ball went on to hit the stumps. As a result, the hosts lost their fourth wicket and suffered a huge collapse after that incident and lost the game by 8 runs.

The on-field umpire straightaway went upstairs to check whether Heather Knight managed to get back into the crease in time, and if there was any kind of contact between Knight and Deepti.

Cricketer-turned-commentator Alexandra Hartley, on the Test Match Special radio coverage, opined it was an obstruction, but Mark Butcher had completely different perspective.

Here’s the video of the incident:

That's OUT! pic.twitter.com/iZ1P0GIshy

— Kumar Sourav (@AdamDhoni1) July 12, 2021

According to law 41.5, concerning obstruction of batters, “it is unfair for any fielder wilfully to attempt, by word or action, to distract, deceive or obstruct either batsman after the striker has received the ball. It is for either one of the umpires to decide whether any distraction, deception or obstruction is wilful or not.”

Later, the spin duo of Deepti and Poonam Yadav played a crucial role in India’s comeback with some miserly bowling spells in the death overs, helping the visitors to level the series with an eight-run win.