hamari Athapaththu’s controversial leg before wicket (lbw) dismissal left UP Warriorz (UPW) captain Alyssa Healy, who was batting at the other end, stunned during their Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2024 clash against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Monday.
The incident happened in the eighth over of the second innings as UP Warriorz tried to chase down RCB’s daunting total.
Leg spinner Georgia Wareham tossed the ball up as Athapaththu missed her sweep shot and was hit on the front leg.
The umpire decided not out as Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Smriti Mandhana called for a DRS. Hawkeye predicted that the ball pitched on leg and would go on to hit the stumps.
Wareham had bowled a leg-spinner but the ball-tracking technology showed the ball going the other way, leaving Athapaththu and Healy stunned.
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Earlier, Mandhana (80, 50b, 10×4, 3×6) and Ellyse Perry (58, 37b, 4×4, 4×6) added 95 runs off just 64 balls for the second wicket as Royal Challengers made a formidable 198 for three. The Warriorz’s chase did not have much to write home about except a fifty (55, 38b, 7×4, 3×6) by captain Alyssa Healy as it ended at 175/8.
But the visitors made a cracking beginning to their innings scoring 47 in just 4.2 overs as Healy and Kiran Navgire tore into RCB bowlers after a first-over maiden by pacer Renuka Singh.
Healy moussed two sixes off pacer Sophie Devine in the second over to start the run glut, and then hammered Renuka for 24 runs in the next over as Navgire also took part in the fun with a four and six.
But Devine ended that partnership when she ousted Navgire and her dismissal cooled down the run-collection rate.