The Meg Lannings-led Delhi Capitals (DC) started the ongoing Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2023 in grand style, defeating Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.
Put to bat first, the Capitals went on to post a massive total of 223/2 on the board, thanks to incredible batting knocks from Shafali Verma and skipper Lanning. While Shafali smashed 84 off just 45 deliveries, including ten fours and four sixes, the Aussie legend scored a classy 72 off 83 balls, laced up with 14 boundaries.
During the DC innings, batter Jemimah Rodrigues, who scored an unbeaten 22, used the Decision Review System (DRS) to check a waist-high no-ball. The one-of-its-kind incident happened in the final over when Jemimah crouched down against the bowling of Megan Schutt and tried to slog the ball to the leg side.
It was a full toss, and Jemimah connected the ball much higher than her waist, down on one knee. The field umpire did not signal it a waist-high no-ball, so Jemimah challenged the umpire’s decision and sent it upstairs to be checked.
The third umpire used a ball tracker to check the flight and the points of possible impact when the ball crossed Jemimah and where it would eventually end in the stumps. The ball tracker showed that the delivery was descending quickly and would have impacted Jemimah below her waist, hence the third umpire termed it as a legitimate delivery.
Jemimah’s decision to challenge the no-ball stirred the debate on social media regarding whether players can even review no-balls. For the unversed, the constitution of WPL permits players to use the DRS to challenge wide and no ball. In the tournament opener between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Gujarat Giants (GG), MI skipper Harmanpreet Kaur had also used the DRS to overturn a wide ball.
Coming back to the match, the Challengers got the enormous target of 233 to chase, which they failed to do so and could only reach 163/8 in 20 overs, losing the match by 60 runs. Tara Norris was the pick of the bowlers for Delhi, bagging a sensational five-wicket haul for just 29 runs in her quota of 4 overs.
