Delhi Capitals’ Lizelle Lee.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Mumbai Indian, WPL 2025 head coach Charlotte Edwards.
| Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

Taking a dig at the controversial run-out decisions that played a big role in her team’s last-ball, two-wicket loss to Delhi Capitals, Mumbai Indians coach Charlotte Edwards said it was “really hard” to comprehend such calls that affect the eventual outcome of the match.

Three controversial run-out decisions sparked a debate as Delhi Capitals edged past MI in a WPL match on Saturday, raising concerns over the interpretation of the LED stump rules.

Third umpire Gayathri Venugopalan ruled three DC batters — Radha Yadav, Arundhati Reddy and Shikha Pandey — not out, seemingly disregarding the moment the LED stumps first lit up after the ball made initial contact with the wickets.

“You’ve got to stay pretty calm. It is really hard when there’re many decisions to go to the third umpire. The result of the game is looking at the big screen,” said Edwards, the two-time World Cup-winning England skipper, after MI’s narrow defeat.

“It’s pretty hard. I’ve played the game and been around the game to know…it’s the game and we just have to move on. We look forward to playing here on Tuesday,” she added.

While commentating on the match, former India captain Mithali Raj also had observed that decisions on Arundhati and Radha Yadav should have gone in MI’s favour.

The WPL 2025 rules state that a wicket is considered broken at the first frame when the LED stumps light up, but in all three cases here, the umpire made decisions based on a second frame when the bails were fully dislodged.

The first controversy surfaced in the 18th over when Pandey’s bat was on the crease line as the LED stumps lit up, but the umpire ruled not out based on the second frame. However, she was run out for two in the next over.

But decisions with far bigger ramifications followed.

In the 19th over, Radha dived and he bat was still up in the air when the stumps were first illuminated, but the third considered the next frame where the bat was grounded when the bails were fully dislodged to give the batter not out.

A similar decision in the final ball of the 20th over saw Arundhati deemed safe despite her bat being on the crease line when the LED lights on the stumps first flashed, as the DC batter was running in for the second run.

The decisions worked in favour of DC, as Radha (nine not out) Arundhati (two not out) secured a dramatic last-ball win.

MI skipper Harmanpreet Kaur looked frustrated but did not formally protest.

Former RCB director of cricket Mike Hesson also expressed his disbelief over the umpire’s decision.

“Not sure why the umpire tonight has decided that the zinger bails are not applicable? Once bails lights up connection is lost therefore the wicket is broken! That is in the playing conditions! Have seen more confusion in the last 10 mins than ever before,” he posted on X.

Earlier, Nat Sciver-Brunt remained unbeaten on 80, dominating alongside Harmanpreet (42), before DC recaptured the momentum to restrict former champions to 164.

Edwards rued the fact that they could not add a few more runs in the backend of the innings.

“It was actually hard when a big partnership like that of Harman (Harmanpreet Kaur) and Nat (sciver-brunt) was broken. They were making it look easy, weren’t they? Potentially that didn’t help. I think the runout of (Amelia) Kerr was a massive point in this game.

“We should have gotten to 180+, which we didn’t, and that hurt us in the end. Shafali (Verma) played brilliantly. But that’s T20 cricket,” she observed.

“There will be a lot of stuff I’d want the team to continue to do, just a few areas where we need to sharpen up, which we’ll do over the next couple of days. Looking forward to our game against Gujarat,” said Edwards who guided them to the title in the inaugural WPL in 2023.

Veteran Shikha who started Mumbai’s slide removing openers Hayley Matthews and Yastika Bhatia, lauded the team effort.

“We are still not at full strength and have some superstars who couldn’t play today. And to get a team like MI which is paying on full strength all out was amazing,” she said.

Delhi Capitals batsman Jake Fraser Mcgurk plays a shot during the Indian Premier League 2024 match against Mumbai Indians in New Delhi on April 27, 2024.
| Photo Credit: R.V. Moorthy

IPL 2024

The trend of gargantuan totals — in Indian Premier League in general and at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in particular — continued. So did that of Delhi Capitals winning at home.

Riding on Jake Fraser-McGurk’s pyrotechnics up front and Tristan Stubbs’ strong finish, DC posted 257 for four against Mumbai Indians. Despite the MI power-hitters clearing boundaries frequently, the Capitals pace troika of Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, and Rasikh Salam Dar picked wickets at regular intervals to control the game.

As a result, despite the visiting team finishing just 10 runs behind the total, the game never slipped out of DC’s grasp.

With Prithvi Shaw failing a fitness test just before the toss, Fraser-McGurk found a new opening partner in Abishek Porel.

The Australian pounced on the MI bowling to amass 89 off the five overs, 78 of which came off his willow. While he cleared the fence at will, his boundary-hitting ability was on full display.

That 80 off his 84 runs came off boundaries underlined his dominance. The best of his 17 boundary hits was his swing over long-on off a slower one to welcome Jasprit Bumrah into the attack.

With Bumrah being unable to strike up front, a toothless MI attack struggled to pull DC back in the middle overs. Stubbs then took on Luke Wood and Nuwan Thushara — the two IPL rookies — to help the Capitals cross the 250-run mark.

The fancied MI top-order had no option to up the ante from ball one. Once DC dismissed the top three in the PowerPlay, MI was always playing catch-up. Khaleel struck twice to get the big fish Rohit Sharma (top-edged to mid-off) and Suryakumar Yadav (jabbed to covers) while Mukesh’s change of pace forced an error out of Ishan Kishan.

Captain Hardik, Tilak Varma and Tim David then played robust innings but they had too much to catch up after the initial damage. Rasikh’s variation in pace also worked wonderfully for the Capitals to close the game out.

Scoreboard

Delhi Capitals: Jake Fraser-McGurk c Mohammad Nabi b Chawla 84 Abishek Porel c Ishan Kishan b Mohammad Nabi 36 Shai Hope c Tilak Varma b Wood 41 Rishabh Pant c Sharma b Bumrah 29 Tristan Stubbs not out 48 Axar Patel not out 11 Extras: (LB-1, NB-1, W-6) 8

Total: (For 4 wickets in 20 overs) 257

Fall of wickets: 1-114, 2-127, 3-180, 4-235

Mumbai Indians bowling: Luke Wood 4-0-68-1, Jasprit Bumrah 4-0-35-1, Nuwan Thushara 4-0-56-0, Piyush Chawla 4-0-36-1, Hardik Pandya 2-0-41-0, Mohammad Nabi 2-0-20-1.

Mumbai Indians: Ishan Kishan c Patel b Mukesh Kumar 20 Rohit Sharma c Hope b Ahmed 8 Suryakumar Yadav c Williams b Ahmed 26 Tilak Varma run out (sub Sumit Kumar/Pant) 63 Hardik Pandya c Mukesh Kumar b Rasikh Salam 46 Nehal Wadhera c Pant b Rasikh Salam 4 Tim David lbw b Mukesh Kumar 37 Mohammad Nabi c Hope b Rasikh Salam 7 Piyush Chawla c Hope b Mukesh Kumar 10 Luke Wood not out 9 Extras: (B-2, LB-2, NB-1, W-12) 17

Total: (For 9 wickets in 20 overs) 247

Fall of wickets: 1-35, 2-45, 3-65, 4-136, 5-140, 6-210, 7-223, 8-234, 9-247

Delhi Capitals bowling: Lizaad Williams 3-0-34-0, Khaleel Ahmed 4-0-45-2, Mukesh Kumar 4-0-59-3, Kuldeep Yadav 3-0-47-0, Axar Patel 2-0-24-0, Rasikh Salam 4-0-34-3.