Ghana: Indian opener Smriti Mandhana said her team respects Poonam Raut’s decision to be dismissed even as umpire Philip Gillespie nodded on the second day of the one-off Test against Australia at the Metricon Stadium on Friday. On a day when Smriti scored her maiden Test century, there were various opinions in the cricketing world on Poonam’s decision to step down.
The incident happened in the 81st over of India’s innings when Poonam decided to be dismissed for 36 off 165 balls after believing she had dismissed left-armer Sophie Molyneux to wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy. Poonam moves to stop the delivery but the ball goes away and goes to Alyssa. The Australians did not appeal wholeheartedly but by then Poonam had left.
“At first we responded, like, ‘Oh, why did he do that?’ But, of course, it’s something that we all have a lot of respect for. I think she’s earned a lot of respect from all the teammates that she really went all out. And I don’t know that in cricket at the moment. How many people will actually do that – male or female,” Smriti told reporters after the day’s play was called off due to rain.
“Nowadays people step out because there is Drs. But when DRS is not there and has to go out, I don’t know. So, of course she’s earned a lot of respect from us, but, yeah, the first reaction was, ‘Oh, was it really an edge or why did she walk?’ That was the first reaction,” Smriti said.
When Poonam’s walk-off was questioned by Australian all-rounder Ellyse Perry, she said, “Yeah, there’s actually a lackluster lead. It is up to her discretion whether she wants to walk or not. And he did, I think from our point of view it’s just acknowledging it. Also, there was not much talk about it.”
When batsman Beth Mooney was asked by commentators if she could walk, she promptly replied, “No, no chance.”
Poonam was playing her first match of the Australia tour. She did not feature in the ODI series at McKay and is not part of the T20I series squad at the Gold Coast after the pink-ball Test.
get all IPL news and cricket score Here
.