In the 7th match of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2026, UP Warriorz took on Delhi Capitals, and a strategic move by the UP Warriorz raised question marks from the viewers and the cricketing fraternity. Harleen Deol, who was doing quite well with the bat, was forced to retire out to bring in some firepower to the batting. This was only the 2nd such instance in the WPL, the first coming only recently involving Gujarat Giants’ Ayushi Soni.
UP Warriorz got off to a decent start despite losing their opening batter, Kiran Navgire, for a duck. Litchfield and Lanning took their side through the powerplay at a decent rate until Litchfield was dismissed by Sneh Rana, and the Warriorz were 47/2. Then came in Harleen Deol at number 4, all set to make an impact, and she did just that. She was striking at over 150, and she was 39 off just 26 balls at a certain stage.
The batting side was delighted with the way she went about her innings and expected her to generate some more momentum and to set the stage for a solid finish from their power hitters. That’s where a twist in the tale came as she was unable to find her timing towards the death overs, and then she was only able to score just 8 runs off 10 balls.
Abhishek Nayar, the head coach of the side, stepped out and signaled Deol to retire out, and that was unexpected considering that she was a set batter. UP Warriorz, having been winless in the tournament so far, were willing to risk it all to bag their first win and were hoping that their remaining batters would be able to find some boundaries.
“HSet featured imagee (Nayar) turns to me, and he goes, ‘I think it’s the time we need to potentially bring Harleen off.’ And I was like, ‘Ooh, okay, this isn’t a normal thing in the women’s game,'” UP Warriorz mentor Lisa Sthalekar said.
“And then I think another one came, and she just wasn’t able to get that swing, that power that we needed to clear the boundaries. So, then it was decided (to retire her out). And then he (Nayar) spoke, I think, to Meg (Lanning, the captain) and a couple of the coaches just quickly to make sure we were all on the same page. And then we pulled the trigger.”
Considering the amount of firepower that was left to come in the batting order with the likes of Chloe Tryon, Deepti Sharma, Sophie Ecclestone and Asha Sobhana, the decision could have ended up well. Harleen Deol isn’t exactly the kind of batter who can just shift gears in a jiffy; she is the kind of batter who can anchor the innings and maintain the flow of the game with her technical ability.
The UP Warriorz would have put all their stakes on their lower order, and it’s fair to say it just wasn’t their day as they could only manage 13 runs from the last 3 overs despite having such quality batters.
“The only thing I questioned was, I think, Meg got out, and I said, ‘If we pull her (Deol) the next over, then you’ve got two new batters (at the crease),'” Sthalekar said. “She’s kind of got used to the conditions. But I think we had about 40 (18) deliveries left. So, it’s like, how are we going to maximise those deliveries?
“And we still felt with Chloe, with Asha (Sobhana), with Sophie, that we still had firepower. As I said, sometimes these things work, and we look like geniuses. And sometimes they don’t. And that’s why we love this game of cricket. It keeps us on our toes.”
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