Follow UsDeepti Sharma has been criticised on many occasions for her slow batting for the Indian team. Unfortunately for her and her well-wishers, the aggression she displayed in the last season, when she was the MVP, has been missing in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) so far.
The UPW skipper created the record of taking the second most deliveries (10) to open her account in the WPL.
After UPW lost their first two games this season under her leadership, she stepped out to bat at number three against the Delhi Capitals in Bengaluru after Vrinda Dinesh fell cheaply against Marizanne Kapp’s classic outswing on the second ball of the third over.
After that Deepti played out Kapp’s entire over, and did the same on the first three balls of the fifth over. However, she was unlucky to not get runs credited to her account when she gloved a ball to the fine leg boundary on the fourth ball of the over.
She played yet another dot ball on the fifth delivery and then finally got a boundary on the last ball of the over to open her account on the last delivery.
Deepti also has the third slowest start in WPL, when she took nine deliveries to get off the mark against DC in the 2023 WPL season. So even if the fourth ball boundary was credited to her, this start would have been amongst the slowest in the league.
Deepti couldn’t even use the number of deliveries she used to capitalise later as she gave Niki Prasad a catch in the 10th over and departed after a slow knock of 13 off 19 deliveries.
15 balls - Grace Harris vs MI, Delhi, 2024
10 balls - Deepti Sharma vs DC, Bengaluru, 2025
9 balls - Deepti Sharma vs DC, Mumbai, 2023
9 balls - Hayley Matthews vs GG, Delhi, 2024