DC defeated MI in a tightly fought contest in WPL 2025.
Mumbai Indians Women (MI) coach Charlotte Edwards shared her thoughts about the controversial run-out decisions that went against her team in their WPL 2025 opening clash against Delhi Capitals Women (DC) on Saturday.
Charlotte Edwards, the Mumbai Indians' coach, said it was "really hard" to understand such calls that impact the match's outcome. Three contentious run-out rulings prompted a debate as the Delhi Capitals defeated MI in a WPL encounter on Saturday, raising questions about the interpretation of the LED stump regulations.
Gayathri Venugopalan, the third umpire, judged three DC hitters -- Radha Yadav, Arundhati Reddy, and Shikha Pandey -- not out even though the LED stumps lit up after the ball made initial contact with the wickets.
"You've got to stay pretty calm. It is really hard when there are many decisions to go to the third umpire. The result of the game is looking at the big screen. 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 on Tuesday,” Edwards stated as per PTI.
Former India captain Mithali Raj also commented on the match, stating that the rulings on Arundhati and Radha Yadav should have gone MI's way.
The WPL 2025 regulations stipulate that a wicket is considered broken when the LED stumps light up in the first frame, yet in all three situations, the umpire reached conclusions based on the second frame when the bails were fully removed.
The first disagreement arose in the 18th over when Pandey's bat was on the crease line and the LED stumps lighted up, but the umpire declared it not out based on the second frame. However, she was ran out for two in the following over.
But actions with far-reaching consequences followed. Radha dived in the 19th over, and the bat was still in the air when the stumps were initially illuminated, but the third evaluated the next frame when the bat was grounded when the bails were fully released, resulting in the batsman not being out.
A similar decision was made with the penultimate ball of the 20th over, with Arundhati adjudged safe despite her bat being on the crease line when the LED lights on the stumps first flashed as the DC batter ran in for the second run.
The verdicts favored DC, as Radha (nine not out) and Arundhati (two not out) sealed a stunning last-ball victory.
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 18, 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.
(PTI inputs)