Mumbai Indians. (Photo Source: Twitter/WPL)
After entertaining the fans with exhilarating cricketing action for 22 days, the Women’s Premier League finally reached its culmination on Sunday, March 26 as Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals locked horns in the final of the competition. Delhi Capitals captain Meg Lanning won the toss and decided to put runs on the board in the big final at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
The decision, however, backfired as Mumbai were successful in breaking the dangerous opening duo of captain Lanning and Shafali Verma in the second over itself. Issy Wong continued her form from the last game and drew first blood for her side dismissing Shafali Verma on a full toss for 11 off 4 balls.
She further got the prized scalp of Alice Capsey in the same over on another full toss, leaving Delhi on 12/2 after 1.5 overs. Wong further dismissed Jemimah Rodrigues in the fifth over to bring Delhi down to their knees.
With Delhi in all sorts of trouble, Lanning and Marizanne Kapp added 38 runs for the fourth wicket off 37 balls. However, they could not extend their partnership beyond that as Kapp was dismissed by Melie Kerr in the 11th over.
Delhi got the worst blow of the match as captain Lanning was run out on 35 in the 12th over. Lanning’s wicket sparked a collapse as Delhi lost three wickets quickly to be 79/9 in 16 overs.
A miraculous stand of 52 off 24 balls between Shikha Pandey (27* off 17) and Radha Yadav (27* off 12) helped Delhi to finish their innings on 131/9. Hayley Matthews was the pick of the bowlers for Mumbai who picked up 3/5 in four overs while Issy Wong also picked up 3/42 in four overs.
In the second innings, Radha Yadav made sure that Mumbai did not get off to a flying start as she dismissed Yastika Bhatia in the second over for four. Jess Jonassen got the second success for Capitals dismissing the dangerous Hayley Matthews in the fourth over to leave Mumbai at 23/2 after 3.4 overs.
Delhi bowlers had tightened their grip on Mumbai’s batters as they were 51/2 after 10 overs requiring 81 to win from the last 60 balls. Seeing her side falling behind in the required run rate captain Harmanpreet Kaur decided to get a move on and began finding boundaries at regular intervals.
Nat Sciver-Brunt guides MI to inaugural WPL title
She added 62 runs for the third wicket off 75 balls with Nat Sciver-Brunt to bring Mumbai back into the game. However, her run out in the 17th over threw the game wide open as Mumbai needed another 37 runs off 23 balls. After losing her captain Nat Sciver-brunt took the onus upon herself to guide her team home. She got good support from Melie Kerr as Mumbai needed 21 off the last two overs. The duo managed to get 16 off the second last over bowled by Jess Jonassen to bring Mumbai on the brink of scripting history.
Brunt sealed the deal in the final over and helped Mumbai win the inaugural Women’s Premier League as she remained unbeaten on 60 off 55 balls smacking seven boundaries in her innings.
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