Mumbai Indians registered a comprehensive win in the Women's Premier League (WPL) eliminator against Delhi Capitals to make their way into the finals. It was a near-perfect game for the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side as they first posted a solid 182/4 riding on Nat-Sciver Brunt's unbeaten 72 off 38 balls before bowling out UP Warriorz for just 110.
Issy Wong became the first cricketer ever to record a hat-trick in the tournament as she got rid of Kiran Navgire, Simran Shaikh and Sophie Ecclestone off successive deliveries in the 13th over of the UP innings to shatter any hopes of a UP comeback. Mumbai emerged victorious by 72 runs and will now play the final against Delhi Capitals on Sunday.
However, one decision that became the talking point after the match was when the third umpire deemed Mumbai Indians' Yastika Bhatia not out on a catch taken by Anjali Sarvani. Even though the replays seemed to suggest that the fielder had taken a fine catch, the umpire thought otherwise which has raised eyebrows.
The effort was was also described as a "clean catch" by former India cricketer Rohan Gavaskar while commentator Harsha Bhogle, who was on air when this incident happened also reckoned the ball had not touched the ground.
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Meanwhile, despite the debatable decision that has raged fans on social media, Mumbai Indians were the better team on the day and deserved to win. That has set the finale between the two best teams of the league in the inaugural sides, the two teams that had also finished in the first two positions in the league stage.
The two teams have met twice already in the tournament before and both sides have won a game each with Mumbai coming out on top in the first face off om March 9, winning by 8 wickets and 30 balls remaining and Delhi winning the second encounter by 9 wickets and 66 balls to spare.
This sets things up beautifully for a summit clash between two top teams with very little to choose between them.