At the Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara on Saturday, February 15, the Delhi Capitals (DC) defeated the Mumbai Indians (MI) by two wickets off the final ball in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2025 second match.
In the closing moments of the thrilling match, three questionable run-out decisions were made. Third umpire Gayathri Venugopalan declared the wicket not out on all three occasions, apparently failing to take into account the LED stumps’ illumination as the signal that the wicket was shattered.
Speaking on commentary during the match, former India captain Mithali Raj claimed that two of those rulings, involving Shikha Pandey and Radha Yadav, ought to have favoured the first-time winners MI.
“Pandey was given not out while the batter had the bat on the line,” Raj stated following the match on JioHotstar. Because you have to dive full stretch, if your bat first strikes the ground [inside the crease] and then [bounces up], it is not out. [But] we can see the bat’s blade up with Radha Yadav. When the LED stumps light up, it is inside the crease and not in contact with any part of the ground. She is therefore out. Never once was the bat in the crease. That is essentially out.
According to WPL 2025 playing conditions Appendix MI-DC,
“the moment at which the wicket has been put down shall be deemed to be the first frame in which the LED lights are illuminated and subsequent frames show the bail permanently removed from the top of the stumps.” This means that if the wicket has LED stumps, it is deemed broken.
When the LED stumps illuminated on all three occasions, it was clear that the batsmen had not made their crease. The batters were spared, nevertheless, when the third umpire chose the frames in which the bails were fully raised out of their groove.