Delhi Capitals (Photo Source: Twitter)
The breathtaking action continued in the Women’s Premier League on Monday, March 20 as Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals locked horns in match 18. The game played at Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai was extremely important as the top two ranked teams looked to beat each other to finish at the top of the points table and get a direct entry into the final.
Delhi captain Meg Lanning won the toss and invited Mumbai to bat first. The decision was well supported by Marizanne Kapp who got rid of Yastika Bhatia and Nat Sciver-Brunt in the third over to get her team off to a rollicking start.
Delhi bowlers were all over the strong Mumbai batting in the powerplay as Shikha Pandey dismissed the dangerous Hayley Matthews courtesy of a spectacular catch by Jemimah Rodrigues. The matters got worse for MI as Amelia Kerr was also dismissed cheaply by Arundhati Reddy and they were left reeling at 21/4 after 6.5 overs.
Captain Harmanpreet Kaur tried to stabilize the innings, however, she couldn’t score more than 23 falling prey to Shikha Pandey. Good cameos from Pooja Vastrakar (26 off 19), Issy Wong (23 off 24), and Amanjot Kaur (19 off 16) took Mumbai to 109/8 in their innings. Delhi bowlers came to the party as Kapp, Pandey, and Jess Jonassen picked up two wickets each.
Shafali Verma and Alice Capsey finished things quickly for Delhi
With just 110 to get for victory, Delhi openers Meg Lanning and Shafali Verma, as has been the tradition of the tournament, came out all guns blazing. Verma took the attack right from the word go and wanted to finish the game as quickly as possible to get ahead of Mumbai in the net run rate.
She was on her way to another blistering fifty but got stumped on 33 off 15 against Matthews leaving her side on 56/1 in 4.3 overs. Alice Capsey walked in next and finished the proceedings with her sensational knock of 38 off 17 as Delhi chased down the target in just nine overs winning the game by nine wickets. Lanning also remained unbeaten on 32 off 22 balls and guided Delhi to the top of the points table with 10 points in seven matches having a net run rate of 1.978.
Here are the best memes from the match: