One of the commies mentioned post-game that why doesn't mankading happen in the 5th or 10th over of the innings. In that regard, I can understand why people would have issues here and bring up spirit of the game notion when mankading happens in the last over of a game specifically. But the act itself shouldn't warrant comments like 'cheating' or 'this is against the spirit of the game'.
To be honest, it still baffles me that mankading is still an issue in the cricketing world. If it's fine for a batter to take a head start in going for a run, why shouldn't the bowler be allowed to run him out in his run up? If mankading is such a massive issue, then get rid of the act entirely from the game itself, while at the same time get rid of the act of batsmen taking headstarts to take a run (to keep things balanced). In this case, if mankading is attempted, it is a dead ball and the bowler should be given a warning and if he does it again, then the bowler is taken out of the match; furthermore, after some time has passed since implementing the rule and the cricketing world as a whole get used to mankading being illegal, if it happens still, then no warning should be given and the bowler is straight taken out of the game.
In this game vs Afghanistan the mankad did come out of nowhere watching this live and there was an air of disappointment, but I can't sit here and complain about spirit of the game and calling this unfair. Gotta call a spade a spade here. Shadab tried to get a headstart and the bowler ran him out. Does it look nice? No. Is the timing nice? No. Is it perfectly legal? Yes. The cricketing world as a whole needs to understand the overall purpose of the existence of mankading. And if it is such a serious problem, then get rid of it entirely and also get rid of batsmen taking head starts to take runs. I don't think anyone would be complaining if mankading was made illegal in the sport (nor would probably anyone notice).
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