By 
Mumbai Indians (MI) became the first-ever champions of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) on Sunday after beating Delhi Capitals (DC) by seven wickets in the final at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
A brilliant all-round performance by the MI batters, bowlers, and fielders helped them to lift the trophy in the inaugural season of the tournament. Issy Wong (3/42) and Hayley Matthews (3/5) starred with the ball for MI, taking three wickets each to restrict DC to 131/9 in 20 overs.
Nat Sciver-Brunt (60* off 55 balls) and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (37 off 39) then ensured that they take their side home as MI chased down the target with three balls to spare and seven wickets in hand.
Chasing a target of 132, MI were initially in a spot of bother as they lost both of their openers inside the first four overs. Opener Matthews got going from the word go as she smashed the third ball of the innings through covers for a four and then hit a square drive off the last ball to make it two boundaries off the over from Marizanne Kapp.
DC captain Meg Lanning then brought left-arm spinner Radha Yadav into the attack from the other end in the second over and it worked wonders for DC, as she removed opener Yastika Bhatia (4 off 3) caught at deep mid-wicket after being hit for a four on the previous ball.
Matthews then flicked Kapp for a boundary through mid-wicket for a four. However, Lanning made another smart bowling change in the fourth over by bringing left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen, who dismissed the dangerous Matthews (13 off 12) caught at mid-wicket. The DC bowlers kept it tight to restrict MI to 27/2 in the powerplay.
Sciver-Brunt then broke the shackles after three quiet overs as she lofted one wide of long off for a four, off Radha. MI reached 51/2 at the halfway stage of the innings.
Initially, Harmanpreet and Sciver-Brunt started off cautiously but then started attacking as the asking rate kept climbing. The pair garnered 12 runs in the 12th over from off-spin all-rounder Alice Capsey.
Harmanpreet then pulled off her go-to shot as she swept one perfectly through square leg for a four off Jonassen. Sciver-Brunt then brought up the 50-run stand off 53 balls along with Harmanpreet by playing a paddle sweep towards fine leg for a couple, as they collected 9 runs off the Jonassen over.
Lanning then brought back Kapp into the attack, who bowled a tight over by giving just five runs off the over. Harmanpreet welcomed Radha with a four off the first ball of her last over, but she then bounced back to give just two singles off the next five balls, conceding six runs off the over. Sciver-Brunt hit a four in the next over by slicing one through backward point off pacer Shikha Pandey as the duo accumulated 8 runs from the 16th over.
However, against the run of play, the Capitals finally broke the 72-run stand off 74 balls between Harmanpreet and Sciver-Brunt for the third wicket, with a brilliant tag-team work from Shikha and Capsey, who ran out Harmanpeet on 37 off 39 on the first ball of the 17th over.
But, Sciver-Brunt was determined to take her team through on the night of the final as she smashed two fours off the same over off Capsey to bring the equation down to 26 needed off 18 deliveries. In the 18th over, Shikha conceded just five runs by bowling a tight over as the equation came down to 21 off 12.
Sciver-Brunt then reached her fifty off 52 balls, as she released the pressure by sweeping one for a four behind square leg on the first ball of the 18th over by Jonassen. Coming in to bat at No.5, leg-spin all-rounder Amelia Kerr then hit back-to-back fours as she slog-swept one to deep mid-wicket and then smashed one through covers in the same over to bring the equation down to 5 runs needed off the last over.
In the last over, Kerr showed her smartness by taking a single off the first ball and giving the strike to the well-set Sciver-Brunt. Sciver-Brunt then pulled one to deep mid-wicket for a couple off the next ball. The 30-year old all-rounder then finished the game in style by scoring the winning runs as she shuffled across and scooped one to fine leg for a four as Mumbai Indians won the match by seven wickets with three balls to spare.
𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗔𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗡 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗠𝗣𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦 𝗢𝗙 #𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗔𝗪𝗣𝗟!
CONGRATULATIONS @mipaltan 👏👏#TATAWPL | #DCvMI | #Final pic.twitter.com/2NqPLqk9gW
— Women’s Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) March 26, 2023
Earlier, after winning the toss and electing to bat first, DC made just one change to their XI as Minnu Mani replaced Poonam Yadav, while Mumbai Indians went unchanged.
MI got off to a great start with the ball as Sciver-Brunt bowled a tight over to concede just two runs off the first over. In the next over, opener Shafali Verma immediately got going as she smashed the first ball of the over from Issy Wong over long-on for a six and then sliced the next ball wide of the third man for a four.
However, Wong had the last laugh as she bounced back to remove Shafali caught at a backward point off the very next ball on a high full toss. The umpires were unsure and went for the review to check the waist-high no-ball. Eventually, it was declared out by the third umpire and Shafali had to walk back to the pavilion on 11 off 4 balls.
Just one ball later, Wong struck again as she dismissed Capsey for a duck caught at extra cover with a brilliant catch by Amanjot Kaur. There was once again a waist-high no-ball check but the replays showed it was well below the waist and the third umpire declared it out. Coming in to bat at No.4, Jemimah Rodrigues started off well and looked in good touch as she played a beautiful wonderful cover drive for a four. It was an over filled with highs and lows for both teams as 14 runs and two wickets came off the second over.
On the other hand, skipper Lanning remained unaffected by what was happening at the other end as she hit consecutive fours off Sciver-Brunt. Rodrigues too joined the party by hitting another brilliant cover drive as the pair garnered 13 runs from the third over.
Hamanpreet then brought left-arm spinner Saika Ishaque into the attack, who has been the best bowler for MI in the tournament. Ishaque didn’t disappoint her captain as she bowled a tight over and conceded just five runs in the fourth over.
On the second ball of the next over, Wong took her third wicket by removing Rodrigues (9 off 8) caught at backward point on another full toss as DC reached 38/3 at the end of the powerplay.
However, Lanning then upped the ante as she smashed a couple of fours off Kerr. In the next couple of overs, MI bowlers again pulled things back by giving just eight runs.
Lanning and Kapp then provided some relief to the DC camp by hitting a couple of fours off Ishaque to collect 12 runs off the 10th over. DC were 68/3 at the halfway stage and there was a partnership slowly developing for the Capitals. However, just when it seemed that DC were getting things back in control, Harmanpreet played a masterstroke by bringing back Kerr into the attack and the move worked wonders for MI as she dismissed Kapp (18 off 21) caught behind with a fast leg-spinner.
Amanjot then displayed another brilliant effort in the field, as she along with wicket-keeper Bhatia ran out the dangerous-looking Lanning (35 off 29), who had a terrible mix-up with Jonassen. DC were in a spot of bother at 74/5 in 12 overs.
Wickets kept falling at regular intervals for DC, as Kerr removed Arundhati Reddy caught at short fine leg for a duck. Matthews then pulled off a sensational caught-and-bowled diving to her right to remove Jonassen for 2 off 11. In her next over, Matthews first deceived Minnu Mani (1 off 9) in the flight to dismiss her stumped and then cleaned up Taniya Bhatia through the gate with a classical off-spin delivery as DC were tottering at 79/9 in 16 overs.
In the 11th to 16th over phase, DC lost six wickets for just six runs. However, Shikha along with Radha displayed some powerful hitting in the end and kept fighting as the duo added a crucial 52-run unbeaten stand off 24 balls for the 10th wicket to help DC cross the 100-run mark.
Radha then finished the innings by giving some momentum to DC as she smashed two sixes off the last two balls off Sciver-Brunt in the final over to help DC post a total of 131/9 in their allotted 20 overs.
Shikha remained unbeaten on 27 off 17 with three fours and one six, while Radha scored 27 not out off 12, hitting two fours and as many maximums.
For MI, Matthews was the pick of the bowlers as she finished with figures of 4-2-5-3, while Wong also took three wickets to finish with 3/42 from her four overs.
Nat Sciver-Brunt was adjudged the Player of the Match for her unbeaten 60 off 55 balls, while Hayley Matthews was named the Player of the Series for scoring 271 runs and taking 16 wickets from the entire season.
Brief Scores: Mumbai Indians 134/3 in 19.3 overs (Nat Sciver-Brunt 60*, Harmanpreet Kaur 37; Radha Yadav 1/24) beat Delhi Capitals 131/9 in 20 overs (Meg Lanning 35, Radha Yadav 27*; Hayley Matthews 3/5, Issy Wong 3/42) by 7 wickets.
Comments