By 
Mumbai Indians defeated Delhi Capitals in Match 7 of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) on Thursday at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
The MI bowlers were clinical with the ball to bowl out DC for just 105. Saika Ishaque (3/13), Issy Wong (3/10) and Hayley Matthews (3/19) picked up three wickets each, while openers Yastika Bhatia (41 off 32) and Hayley Mattews (32 off 31) added a 65-run opening stand to help MI register a convincing eight-wicket win.
MI continued their winning streak with three wins from three matches and remains unbeaten at the top of the table with six points.
Chasing 102, MI got off to a flying start as opener Bhatia smashed a couple of fours through covers off Marizanne Kapp in the first over. Her opening partner Matthews also joined her in the party as she slashed one over point for a four.
Interestingly, Matthews got three fours off edges in the next over from pacer Shikha Pandey. On the other hand, Bhatia continued to hit the ball from the middle of her bat as she first hit a four with a drive down the ground off Kapp and then pulled a couple of balls for consecutive fours in the same over.
Bhatia then came down the wicket and smashed Jess Jonassen straight down the ground for a four as MI were 47/0 at the end of the powerplay.
Looking in good touch, Bhatia continued to score boundaries and welcomed left-arm spinner Radha Yadav with a couple of fours off her first two balls.
DC skipper Meg Lanning then brought the associate player Tara Norris into the attack and she didn’t disappoint her captain as she broke the partnership by trapping Bhatia lbw. Bhatia went for the review but the replays showed all three reds as she had to walk back to the pavilion.
After the initial struggle, Matthews finally got her timing right as she hit two consecutive fours by smashing one over extra cover and then sweeping one behind square leg off Jonassen.
However, her innings came to an end when she mistimed her lofted shot straight to long off where Jemimah Rodrigues came running in and took a brilliant diving catch.
MI looked comfortable in their chase and were going well above the required run rate. All-rounder Nat Sciver-Brunt and captain Harmanpreet Kaur then got together to stitch an unbeaten 32-run partnership off 21 balls for the third wicket and ensured there were no more hiccups in the chase as they finished the game with 30 balls to spare.
Earlier, winning the toss and electing to bat first, Delhi Capitals made one change as Minnu Mani came in for Arundhati Reddy in the line-up, while Mumbai Indians went with the same winning combination without making any changes to their XI.
Opener Lanning started well with a boundary off the first ball of the match as she smashed Nat Sciver-Brunt one through point for a four. However, Mumbai Indians pulled things back from there and kept on picking wickets.
Left-arm spinner Ishaque, who has so far impressed everyone with other excellent bowling got the first breakthrough for MI as she dismissed opener Shafali Verma (2), who was cleaned up while going for a hit across the line to a full-length delivery
Nat Sciver-Brunt then conceded just four runs and bowled a tight over, while the following two overs yielded just 11 runs for the Capitals. The pressure was building and pace-bowling all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar took full advantage of it by removing Alice Capsey caught at covers for 6, as DC managed to score just 29/2 at the end of the powerplay.
Skipper Harmanpreet then brought Wong into the attack and she struck immediately in her first over by dismissing Kapp, who dragged one onto the stumps.
Rodrigues then gave some momentum to the Capitals’ innings as she smashed three fours off Sciver-Brunt. One of them came edged while the other two were off the sweet spot of the bat as she sliced one through point for a four and then drove with excellent timing through extra cover for a boundary.
Amelia Kerr and Matthews then bowled a couple of tight overs to continue building pressure before Lanning finally got going, hitting three consecutive fours off Kerr.
With the partnership between Lanning and Rodrigues looking dangerous for MI, skipper Harmanpreet brought Ishaque back into the attack and she provided the important breakthrough, as Rodrigues got bowled on 25 while going for the cut shot. Lanning scored 43 off 41, hitting five fours before getting caught off Ishaque at extra cover in the same over.
Meanwhile, Matthews removed Jonassen (2) caught at backward point and then got Mani (0) stumped with a wide off-spin delivery, which she missed while coming down the wicket.
With wickets falling one by one, Yadav scored the first six of the innings as she smashed one powerfully over extra cover off Kerr. However, the DC collapse continued as Wong dismissed both Taniya Bhatia and Radha in the same over while conceding just four runs.
In the 18th over, Matthews then closed the innings with her third wicket as she trapped Norris LBW (successfully reviewed), to bowl out DC for 105 in 18 overs.
For MI, Ishaque, Wong and Matthews finished with three wickets each.
Saika Ishaque was awarded the Player of the Match for her figures of 3/13 from three overs. She took important wickets of Shafali, Rodrigues and Lanning.
Brief Scores: Mumbai Indians 109/2 in 15 overs (Yastika Bhatia 41, Hayley Matthews 32; Alice Capsey 1/14) beat Delhi Capitals 105/10 in 18 overs (Meg Lanning 43, Jemimah Rodrigues 25; Issy Wong 3/10, Saika Ishaque 3/13) by 8 wickets.
Comments