The league stage encounter between MI and Warriorz in the WPL 2023 witnessed real drama around a DRS referral on the LBW.
The league stage encounter for the Women’s Premier League (WPL) on Sunday (March 12) between Mumbai Indians (MI) and UP Warriorz witnessed a dramatic incident which saw MI batter Hayley Matthews survive a decision being given on the incorrect DRS footage.
The fiasco saw Matthews being given out on the initial review where the screen displayed footage of a different delivery to the television umpire, who based his judgement of an LBW referral off the incorrect clip until the batter stood her ground and forced the officials to stand corrected.
The incident left everyone shell-shocked, with the replay technology in use for the WPL 2023 letting the on-field action down for once and almost resulting in an unfair dismissal. One could only laud Hayley Matthews for being alert to the situation and recognising in time that she has been given out on the review after an incorrect footage.
The batter had been initially given not out on the fielding after playing out a yorker but then saw the decision reversed by the third umpire, who, however, ultimately had to revert to the on-field call when it emerged that the earlier declaration of out was made from a footage of an alternate delivery.
The incident happened in the fifth over of the MI innings. Facing up to left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone, Hayley Matthews managed to keep her yorker down. But since her front shoe was peerlessly close to the willow, UP Warriorz went for a huge appeal, before Ecclestone and skipper Alyssa Healy decided to go for the review.
The initial replay showed that the shoe, however, was nowhere near the bat and that the ball had jammed onto Matthews’ willow on the straight. That compelled both the bowler and the wicketkeeping skipper to move back to their positions while the third umpire checked on the full review.
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This is where the drama began as the replay that the third umpire then saw was of an earlier yorker, a similar one, which had the ball just brushing Matthews’ frontfoot shoe before hitting the bat infront of the stumps. The umpire assessed it via the ‘ultraedge’ and quickly asked for the ball-tracking, which had the ball predicted to be hitting the stumps. The batter was duly given out.
The incident can be seen here.
But Matthews recognised there was some issue with the decision since the ball that had been shown on screen was completely different to the one that had just taken place. She held her ground and forced the umpires to verify the footage.
It was then that the right footage was verified by the third umpire and the ultimately correct decision was arrived at, allowing Matthews to survive and continue with her innings as she had deserved to throughout.
