Twitter reacts to India Women recreating tragicomical Jurel-Ankolekar run-out to confuse third umpire

02/24/2020

Who said lightning cannot strike twice? In fact, today at the WACA, it struck THRICE as India Women, after the India and Pakistan U19 teams, indulged in a tragicomical run-out. As the bails were taken off at the keeper’s end, Deepti and Veda were seen fighting for their wickets at the bowler’s end.

It wasn’t long ago that Indian youngsters Dhruv Jurel and Atharva Ankolekar - for all the wrong reasons - blew up the internet after they were seen scrambling to save their wickets in the U19 World Cup final against Bangladesh, running towards the same end. In no time, the poor lads were the victims of a barrage of memes and one felt that every cricketer would have taken note of that particular incident, ensuring to avoid such a mix-up to stay away from the unnecessary limelight. Well, the memo clearly did not reach the Indian women, who replicated a carbon copy of the incident today in their game against Bangladesh Women.

The incident occurred on the fifth ball of the 17th over, off the bowling of Bangladesh skipper Salma Khatun. Deepti Sharma, who was on strike and batting on 10, swept a loopy off-break outside-off stump towards mid-wicket and instantly called her partner Veda Krishnamurthy to return for a second run. However, Deepti, after the fielder Nigar Sultana got to the ball quickly and released it, had a change of mind and, after taking three steps forward, asked her partner Veda to turn back.

But Veda, who was running at full pace and already in the middle of the wicket, had no intentions of turning back, and so sprinted towards the bowler’s end instead. And realizing that it would be all but impossible to reach the keeper’s end, where the throw had gone, Deepti instead turned back and put in a desperate dive towards the bowler’s end to keep her wicket. And just as was the case in the Jurel-Ankolekar run-out, both Deepti and Veda were seen stranded at the same end, looking to save their wickets, whilst the bails were taken off at the strikers’ end.

Confusion ensued as no one quite knew who reached first and after close examination, the third umpire made the decision, ruling Deepti Sharma out. The replays showed that Deepti indeed slipped while turning back, giving Veda Krishnamurthy the time to overtake her and eventually make the crease before her.

Well, brace yourselves meme creators and meme consumers. You all are in for a field day at the office today.

History repeating

Survival of the fastest.
— Kiran Tom Sajan (@KiranTom)

Familiar scenes

History repeating 🙈 |
— ICC (@ICC)

Poor communication

Veda Krishnamurthy made it count with a 11-ball 20 after that mix-up to give India a solid total

The pitch has been on the slower side, so Indian spinners will be the key again.
— ZENIA D'CUNHA (@ZENIADCUNHA)

Can't agree more