The thrill at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi peaked during the match between Delhi Capitals and UP Warriorz on Friday (March 8) when Deepti Sharma picked up a hattrick split across two overs.
She became only second bowler and the first Indian to do so in the short WPL history with Issy Wong of Mumbai Indians doing it in the inaugural edition. Interestingly, none of UP Warriorz players took notice of the hattrick as it was split across two overs and after a long gap.
Deepti had dismissed Delhi skipper Meg Lanning off the last ball of the 14th over of the innings. She then came on to bowl the 19th over and scalped two wickets off the first two balls to create history. She picked up four wickets in five balls to derail Delhi Capitals’ chase.
Deepti is the first women player to take a hattrick and make a fifty in the same T20 game.
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Deepti Sharma creates history
Having dismissed Lanning off the last ball of her previous over, Deepti returned to castle Annabel Sutherland as a length delivery on off-stump stayed a bit low to disturb the furniture. Next up was Deepti’s India teammate Arundhati Reddy who went for the hero-shot first up with pressure building and Grace Harris held on to a good catch to complete a memorable hattrick that was realised later.
Shikha Pandey prevented the off-spinner from picking a double hattrick but got out the very next ball as she hit one back at the bowler and Deepti didn’t make any mistake. The over turned the game completely with Deepti conceding only five runs and bringing the equation down to 10 runs off the last over.
Delhi Capitals’ sensational collapse continued even in the final over as UP Warriorz won the match by just one run.
As for the match, it was due to Deepti again that UP Warriorz even managed to post a total of 138 runs in their 20 overs. Having come out to bat in the second over, the left-hander saw wickets fall right through the innings around her. But she played a lone hand and hung around till the last over scoring 59 runs off 48 balls with six fours and one six to her name.
Her knock made sure, UP posted a competitive total on the board and then once again, it took a special spell of 4/19 from Deepti Sharma for them to pull off a heist in the last two overs of the match.
Delhi Capitals were in absolute control of the chase until their captain Meg Lanning was in the middle. She made batting look so easy during her 60-run knock off 46 balls with 12 fours. But then, Deepti got the better of her and did the unthinkable in her next over to keep UP Warriorz alive and kicking in the race to make it to the top three.
