Lauren Bell: England Women 'wouldn't play that way' to take wickets like Jonny Bairstow's dismissal at Lord's
Lauren Bell said England Women would not take a wicket in the manner of Jonny Bairstow's dismissal; Australia's Megan Schutt felt it was fair and batters should stay in their crease; watch the second IT20 of the Women's Ashes series live on Sky Sports on Wednesday, July 5
Tuesday 4 July 2023 10:01, UK
Lauren Bell insists England’s women would not want to take wickets in the way which saw male counterpart Jonny Bairstow dismissed in the second Test at Lord’s on Sunday.
Bairstow was given out stumped when Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey caught him out of his ground following the last ball of the 52nd over, sparking a fierce debate over whether it was the in spirit of cricket to appeal for such a wicket.
England's women faced a similar controversy last summer when Charlie Dean was given out from a 'Mankad' dismissal in their 16-run ODI series-ending defeat to India, and seamer Bell does not want contentious wickets to affect their ongoing series against Australia.
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"Personally, it wouldn't be the way we want to play our cricket," Bell said. "It's happened now, and as a team we wouldn't play that way.
"There were a lot of emotions coming from a lot of things [with the Dean dismissal]. It was the end of the series, the way we lost the game, but that's definitely not the way we'd want to play our cricket and how we want to go about things.
"We've moved on from that situation, we played India at the World Cup and we've moved forward as a team.
"Women's cricket, there is so many good things to talk about and that's what we want to prioritise. We want women's cricket to be looked at with all the amazing things that are happening."
Australia's Megan Schutt took the view her compatriots were well within their rights to appeal for such a dismissal and it was up to the umpires to adjudicate on matters of the Laws of Cricket.
The right-arm seamer would have no issue if it happened while she were bowling either and believes the incident underlines why batters should stay in their crease until the ball is ruled dead.
"It was a fair dismissal," Schutt said. "At the end of the day, that's left up to the umpires so that's really out of our control.
"I'd be happy with any wicket that goes towards me. It's a stumping, it's another one for my stats - I'll take it.
"I think batters need to stay in their crease. We learnt that through the 'Mankad' 'spirit of cricket' discussions, so I don't think there are going to be many batters leaving their crease after that."
England and Australia continue their Women's Ashes battle with the second match of the T20 leg of the multi-format series at The Oval on Wednesday July 5.
The hosts have it all to do after following up the 89-run defeat in the one-off Test with a four-wicket loss in the opening T20 at Edgbaston, which left them 6-0 down on points and needing to win the remaining two T20s and three ODIs to reclaim the Women's Ashes for the first time since 2014.
Nevertheless, Bell believes England are closing the gap on Australia and is hoping they continue to inspire the next generation after playing in front of a 20,000 crowd in Birmingham over the weekend.
"We've done a lot of good things over the past couple of games and we're in a really good position, but as [England captain] Heather [Knight] would have said there are just a few moments when we could be better.
"If we win a few more of those, we've got a chance of getting over the line, but we've still got the belief.
"The big thing we want to do is inspire and entertain and get girls and young girls to come and play cricket. We're really putting women's cricket on the map, which is really exciting."
The second IT20 of the Women's Ashes is live on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event from 5.30pm on Wednesday. Also stream on NOW TV.
