During the sixth game of the Women's Premier League 2026, Ayushi Soni from Gujarat Giants Women created an unwanted history in the tournament, while batting her first innings of the tournament. 

After the defending champions Mumbai Indians Women chose to field first on Tuesday (January 13), Gujarat Giants Women were struggling at 99/4, when the WPL debutant 25-year-old Ayushi Soni joined Georgia Wareham. 

Ayushi Soni became first player to be retired out in WPL history

Ayushi had a 37-run partnership from 35 balls with Gerogia for the fifth wicket, where the no.6 batter and WPL debuatnt scored 11 off 14 balls without any boundary. At the end of the 16th over, the team decided to retire her out. It worked for Giants as Georgia had a crucial 56-run partnership in last 24 balls with Bharti Fulmali for the unbroken sixth wicket, where Bharti scored 36 not out off 15 balls with three fours and three sixes. Georgia scored 43 not out from 33 balls. While Giants managed to score 192/5 in 20 overs, Mumbai Indians chased down the target in 19.2 overs after losing three wickets. 

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It was the first time in the WPL history where a retire out was recorded. Meanwhile, it was the only second time in women's franchise T20 league history to experience a retire out. The first such incident happened during the Manchester Originals vs Northern Superchargers in the Women's Hundred 2024, where the Manchester batter Kathryn Bryce retired out. 

There's no doubt the call was the right one: Gujarat Giants head coach

Talking about the retire out decision for the WPL debutant Ayushi, Giants' head coach Michael Klinger clarified that he made the ultimate decision after understanding the situation.

The GG head coach told in post-match press conference, "So we spoke to Ayushi and Georgia about that 13-over timeout, and spoke to Ayushi about really lifting her rate once we get to the 15th over, because of what we have left in the shed, knowing that Bharti is a really strong hitter, and probably just felt after that 16th over, that was the time to inject Bharti with four overs to go, and we knew we had some batters left."

"In the end, the decision came… actually myself, I was just chatting with our batting coach and then Ashleigh Gardner came over and we discussed it and I made the call. In hindsight it got us probably 20 more runs, so there's no doubt the call was the right one."

Meanwhile, Klinger also confirmed that he spoke with Ayushi about that decision while also praised her for the role of the crucial partnership to settle the team to go for the big in the slog overs.