Ayushi Soni makes WPL history, just not the way she wanted it as she became the first player to be retired out in WPL.
During the Gujarat Giants’ (GG) innings against the Mumbai Indians (MI) at the DY Patil Stadium on Tuesday, Ayushi Soni became the first player to be retired out in a WPL game.
Soni batted at number six and found it difficult to get going. When the Giants retired her at the conclusion of the 16th over, with the scoreboard showing 136 for 5, she was on 11 off 14 balls and had not struck a single boundary.
In women’s franchise T20 cricket, this was only the second time a player had been retired out. The first was when Kathryn Bryce was retired out for Manchester Originals versus Northern Superchargers in the Women’s Hundred in 2024.
Anushka Sharma, who had participated in GG’s opening two games of the season, was replaced by Soni, who was making her WPL debut. After suffering a minor injury while fielding during their victory over the Delhi Capitals (DC), Anushka was sidelined for a “short period” of time.
After Soni was retired out, Bharti Fulmali walked out. She was given out lbw on the first two balls she faced, but successful reviews spared her. After that, she hit an undefeated 36 off 15 with three fours and three sixes, and her 56-run partnership with Georgia Wareham helped GG reach 192 for 5.
“So we spoke to Ayushi and Georgia about that [in the] 13-over timeout, and spoke to Ayushi about really lifting her rate once we get to the 15th over, because of what we have left in the shed, knowing that Bharti is a really strong hitter, and probably just felt after that 16th over, that was the time to inject Bharti with four overs to go, and we knew we had some batters left,” GG head coach Michael Klinger said at the post-match press conference, explaining the decision.
“In the end, the decision came… actually myself, I was just chatting with our batting coach and then Ashleigh Gardner came over and we discussed it and I made the call. In hindsight, it got us probably 20 more runs, so there’s no doubt the call was the right one,” Klinger said. “It’s tough on the individual, we’ve spoken to Ayushi and we continue to speak to her, keep the confidence in her, but sometimes you’ve got to make those calls, there’s probably a difference between us making 190-odd to 170-odd.”