Catch 22: UP Warriorz Dropped Catches Haunt Their WPL 2024 Campaign

Here’s a WPL 2024 riddle for you folks.

What is common between Sabbhineni Meghana, Shafali Verma, Meg Lanning, Hayley Matthews, Phoebe Litchfield, Laura Wolvaardt, Smriti Mandhana, Amelia Kerr, and Nat Sciver-Brunt?

Give up?

If you have been closely following the ongoing Women’s Premier League and UP Warriorz’s campaign, this should be easy. These are the batters who have been treated to UPW’s generosity—they have all been given a life thanks to a UPW fielder not being able to hold onto what should have been a regulation catch (barring a couple of tough chances).

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The butterfingered UPW fielders have given life to at least nine batters spread across their four opponents, with two being dropped twice in the same innings. One of them (Mandhana of Royal Challengers Bangalore) scored a match-winning 80 after being first dropped on 28. Another (Sciver-Brunt of Mumbai Indians) capitalized after being given a life on four to score 45 as MI won by 42 runs.

UPW, though, aren’t the lone culprits. Their opponents have not exactly set a shining example either. However, UPW have dropped at least one catch in each of their six matches so far, and their consistency is only matched by current table-toppers Delhi Capitals, who have also dropped at least one catch in each of their five games so far.

UPW suffered their fourth defeat of WPL 2024 as they took on defending champions MI in Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium. At the end of the 19th over of MI innings, the bowler Deepti Sharma fired a throw towards her captain and wicketkeeper Alysa Healy after finishing her spell.

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It wasn’t a wild projectile, but her body language clearly expressed her frustration. Deepti conceded 10 runs in the over after her teammate Sophie Eccelstone dropped a sitter at extra cover that would have ended Amelia Kerr’s enterprising innings on 34, but the sloppiness helped the MI allrounder add a couple more to her total.

In the same over, Grace Harris made a meal of what should have been a bread-and-butter save at long-on to concede a four—this after she had dropped a tough catch off her own bowling earlier in the innings. The over was a microcosm of UPW’s poor show on the field, which has been undoing their otherwise impressive efforts with the ball.

UPW head coach Jon Lewis feels that the inexperience of a few players who are not used to fielding under the lights is the main reason why their fielding has been so substandard this season. However, Lewis, who is also the head coach of England women’s team, feels their display against MI was much better than before.

“Some players are inexperienced under the lights,” Lewis told reporters during a post-match interaction on Thursday. “I thought we were better in the field today overall. Grace dropped a tough catch and bowled, which hit pretty hard. And then Alyssa dropped one behind. So, when you’re stood up to the stumps and the ball comes off the edge, it comes pretty quick. So those are not simple chances. I thought our fielding actually today was pretty good. We made a couple of fumbles and some really good diving stops on the outfield. It was a definite improvement for me. But in terms of the experience of a lot of the players playing under lights, it’s very minimal and it is a little bit different.”

Lewis then felt that some players aren’t used to fielding at certain positions since they are stationed at a particular spot when playing for their national teams and that could also be a factor.

“Sophie dropped a catch… I would have expected her to take it. But again, she said she didn’t quite see it off the bat, and it came out of some lights in the background somewhere. She didn’t pick the ball up. And what you also find, I think, is when you play franchise cricket, that the international players will often field in different positions that they would normally have in their country for the national side. So sometimes they get slightly surprised by the pace of the ball that comes to them,” Lewis said.

Points Table, Orange Cap and Purple Cap Standings After UPW vs MI in WPL 2024 – Get All the Details Here

“So Sophie wouldn’t normally sit extra cover for us on the England side; she’d be in a different position. But yeah, she would be expected to catch that ball, and I would expect her to catch that ball as a coach for UP and for England as well. But yeah, it seems like a bit of a trend in the tournament. There’s a lot of balls going down, but that’s, I suppose, a little bit of lack of experience for many players, but also and especially under the lights,” he added.

UPW cannot theoretically finish at the top of WPL 2024 points table and hence cannot directly qualify for the final, they are now in a must-win situation in their remaining two games to ensure a top-three finish to make it to the Eliminator. And with the tournament entering its business end, their fielding is an area that definitely sticks out like a sore thumb that could potentially force an early exit.