As Mumbai Indians chased 160 in its match against UP Warriorz, an anomaly unfolded during Sunday’s Women’s Premier League (WPL) fixture at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai.
In the fourth over of Mumbai’s innings, Sophie Ecclestone bowled a yorker to opener Hayley Matthews, which UP appealed for lbw. The third umpire ruled in UP’s favour, but Matthews stood her ground. The on-field umpires also seemed unconvinced as the decision was looked at again and reversed, all in the span of a couple of minutes.
The confusion on the field translated to puzzlement amongst the UP camp.
“Clearly there was a mistake in where the footage. I don’t understand how that works off the field but it was clearly a misunderstanding between the director and the umpire about how they were playing the clip backwards and forwards. And yes, unfortunately for us, I was convinced at one point that we had the wicket and the umpire gave out. But the good thing about that was the right decision was made in the end,” remarked UP coach Jon Lewis.
While these were the emotions in the UP dugout, Matthews’ opening partner Yastika Bhatia, who was at the non-striker’s end, had a slightly more composed reaction, “As soon as Hayley played the ball and looked at me, I told her that the ball hit the bat first. But she was slightly nervous and wanted to review it. Once she saw the clip she was convinced too, but then there was some issue in the review and since we were sure of it we went to the on-field umpire, who told us that they were going to review it “
In the end, Hayley survived the scare but could not capitalise on it, as she was dismissed by Ecclestone a few overs later.
Mumbai registered an eight-wicket win riding on a scintillating show by Mumbai captain Harmanpreet Kaur (53 off 33) and Nat Sciver-Brunt (42 off 27), which helped it remain unbeaten in the tournament.
Comments
SHARE