England captain's ‘disgraceful behaviour’ and ‘zero class’ act with the umpires called out; accepts mistakes later

England captain Heather Knight accepted that the umpires made the right call by taking the players off during the last over of the second T20I between England Women and Australia Women in Canberra but not before making the world know of her disappointment. She was slammed on social media for her "disgraceful" and "classless" act of not shaking hands with the umpires after they informed her and Australia captain Tahlia McGrath that the match was called off with five balls remaining in the England chase due to heavy rain. England needed 18 runs off five balls but they were six runs behind the DLS par score. Australia were declared the winners. Heather Knight refused to shake hands with the umpires

When the umbrella-holding umpires informed Knight and McGrath that the match was over and Australia were the winners on DLS method, Knight was seen shaking hands with her counterpart but refused to do the same when one of the umpires extended her hand. The England captain, instead, stormed off towards the dugout to shake hands with the Australian players and her teammates.

Knight believed there was a genuine chance to pull off England's first victory in an otherwise disastrous Ashes tour. She was batting on 43 off just 19 balls when the skies opened up, forcing the umpires to take the players off the field. A visibly upset, Knight threw her bat on the ground before gingerly making her way to the dugout.

Knight's act did not go down well with the fans as they called the England batter for her inappropriate behaviour. Some even pointed out that the England players had no problems in walking off the field due to rain when they were ahead of the DLS par score earlier in the game.

Heather Knight agrees umpires were right

Once she cooled down, Knight admitted the umpires were right to stop play. "It was the right decision by the umpires," she said. "I was really in the zone to try and win us that game, and obviously frustrated that we were going off, but it wasn't at the umpires at all. It was pretty wet, even when we were running it felt pretty slippy and it was quite hard to attack those twos. So yeah, it was the right decision, 100 per cent.

"It was brilliant game of cricket. I felt like I could get us over the line. I felt really set, and I had some really good boundary options on a very good cricket wicket. It was an awesome crowd, and they deserved a finish, and you could hear the frustration from the fans that we were going off, and the game wasn't able to reach its conclusion."

Australia won the toss and chose to field. Openers Beth Mooney (44) and Georgia Voll (5) put on 47 runs before Voll was run out. At the end of the powerplay, Australia was 54/1. Sophie Ecclestone removed Mooney, leaving Australia at 66/2. Charlie Dean then took key wickets of Ellyse Perry (2) and Phoebe Litchfield (17). A 39-run stand between Annabel Sutherland (18) and Tahlia McGrath (48*) helped Australia reach 185/5 in 20 overs, with a late explosive 71-run partnership between McGrath and Grace Harris (35*).

England’s revised target was 175 from 19.1 overs due to rain. Danni Wyatt (52) and Sophia Dunkley (32) put on 52 runs, but England were 99/3 in the 13th over. A 65-run stand between Nat Sciver-Brunt (22) and Heather Knight (43*) put them on track, but Schutt (2/32) and Kim Garth restricted England to 168/4, falling short by 6 runs.

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