In its business end, the Women’s Premier League (WPL) on the 24th of March had the Eliminator played between the UP Warriorz and Mumbai Indians. The inaugural season, meant for many firsts, during the Eliminator witnessed Issy Wong script history having bagged a hat-trick.
England pacer, Isabelle Wong for the Mumbai Indians has been in fine form throughout the season having picked up 12 wickets off 9 games. Wong got her campaign underway with impressive figures of 1/7 (3) against Gujarat Giants and registered a 0/18 (2) against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). In the very next game against the Delhi Capitals with stunning figures of 3/10 off 4 overs she announced her arrival in the tournament.
Then against the UP Warriorz, she again had a wicketless outing but was economical with figures of 0/29 (4). In the following game, against the Giants, she registered figures of 1/19 (3) and during the reverse fixtures against the UP Warriorz registered figures of 1/24 (2.3) and smashed a 19-ball 32 as well. She bettered her 0/20 (2) against the Capitals with 2/26 against RCB to close out the league games.
Come the Eliminator against the UP Warriorz and Issy Wong got to her best. She registered match-winning figures of 4/15 (4) of which the highlighting was her bagging the tournament’s first hat trick. Interestingly, Wong’s hat trick happened to be the first-ever for Mumbai Indians who are in the business since 2008.
✨4- 15 (4 overs)
Issy Wong ends her brilliant spell with 4 wickets, including the first-ever hat-trick, against the UP Warriorz 👏🙌 #CricketTwitter #WPL2023 #MIvUPW pic.twitter.com/6D4uQaB9ag
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) March 24, 2023
Wong first struck the set and striking Kiran Navgire on 43 off 26, and then cleaned up Simran Sheikh with a perfect yorker handing her a golden duck. With 2-in-2, Wong was on the hat-trick, and in walked Sophie Ecclestone who too walked off with a golden duck to her name and with a hat-trick in the 13th over of the game, UP Warriorz from 84/4 found themselves 84/7 in no time.
Relive The Moment 🙌
The first ever Hat-trick of the WPL. courtesy Issy Wong 🔥 🔥 #CricketTwitter #WPL2023 #MIvUPW pic.twitter.com/CYq0e48WM3
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) March 25, 2023
The four-fer including the hat trick on the big stage was the only right fit to cherry up the season Wong has had. Mumbai Indians set UP Warriorz with a competitive 183 to chase down for the win on the back of Nat Sciver-Brunt’s 38-ball 72*, and invaluable cameos from Melie Kerr and Pooja Vastrakar.
Issy Wong on her outing, said, “It’s all a bit surreal, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind for the last couple of weeks. Put in a bit of hard yards for the last couple of years in the gym and rewarding to enjoy all of that. Under lights, it swung. The square allows you to keep the swing going even in the later stages of the innings.
“We knew if we look after the ball, then we can get it to swing.” Following Wong’s hat-trick the Warriorz surely didn’t recover and with a thumping 72-run margin, Mumbai stormed their way to the Final where they’ll meet the Meg Lanning-led Delhi Capitals.
