‘Stupid decision’: Internet calls out UP Warriorz coach Abhishek Nayar for retiring out Harleen Deol on 47

Ayushi Soni of Gujarat Giants became the first batter to be retired out in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) on Tuesday after she scored only 11 runs off 14 balls. However, not many expected the incident to repeat on the very next day, as Harleen Deol also faced the same fate, despite scoring 47 runs off 36 balls. UP Warriorz were placed well at the time when their head coach Abhishek Nayar decided to retire her out which left the batter shocked as well.

Harleen was batting with a strike rate of 130.56 and had also stitched an 85-run stand with captain Meg Lanning earlier. The latter was dismissed in the 16th over and at the end of the 17th over, Nayar retired Deol out to give Chloe Tryon a go, intending to score quick runs in the last three overs of the innings. Deol was also left shocked with the decision as she walked back to the dugout disappointed.

Fans criticise Abhishek Nayar for ‘stupid decision’

However, the move turned out to be a blunder as the Warriorz lost all the momentum in the innings. They were 141/4 after Deol retired out and could add only 13 runs in the last three overs while losing four more wickets. The UP Warriorz fans were also not pleased with the decision as they felt a set batter in Deol could’ve made a better impact and helped the team post a total in excess of 160.

While many of them called it a foolish decision, one of the fans also took a dig at the head coach, Abhishek Nayar, over the team’s poor show in the tournament so far.

Here are some of the reactions:

For the unversed, Meg Lanning earlier scored a half-century, even as the UP Warriorz finished on 154 runs for the loss of eight wickets in their 20 overs. At one stage, they seemed like posting a total of more than 170 runs but the decision to retire Harleen Deol out came back to haunt the Warriorz.