Delhi Capitals end runners-up for the third time after batting caves in, losing the WPL final by 8 runs in Mumbai
Mumbai: When Harmanpreet Kaur has a good day, Mumbai Indians usually win matches. When Harmanpreet Kaur has a good season, Mumbai Indians usually win the tournament.
Mumbai Indians became two-time WPL champions as they defeated Delhi Capitals by 8 runs in the final on Saturday. (AFP)
Both of that held true on Saturday as MI captured their second Women’s Premier League (WPL) title, beating Delhi Capitals by eight runs in a repeat of the 2023 final and outcome at the Brabourne Stadium on Saturday.
Harmanpreet’s 44-ball 66 stood head and shoulders above the rest in MI’s total of 149/7 on the big day. Harmanpreet’s season tally of 302 runs striking at 155 — the highest among the top five run scorers — was as invaluable in the champion team filled with champion all-rounders. Nat Sciver-Brunt, the tournament’s highest scorer who took three wickets in the final, being among the standouts.
As Sciver-Brunt defended 14 off the last over, MI players scurried into a huddle. DC had lost a third straight final, twice to the same team.
Even if slightly under par, MI had runs on the board and for them to have a shot at defending it, disrupting DC’s on-song opening combo was the key. Enter Sciver-Brunt with the ball. The Englishwoman cleaned up Meg Lanning with a cutter that nipped back sharply. Shafali Verma perished in the next over, playing across the line to a full Shabnim Ismail delivery to be trapped in front.
Their openers having done the bulk of the scoring this season, DC were in unfamiliar territory. Jess Jonassen and Jemimah Rodrigues had some rebuilding to do, and at 37/2 after a 15-run sixth over, they were into that process. That’s when Amelia Kerr broke through, removing Jonassen with a googly that induced the top edge into Yastika Bhatia’s gloves. The wicketkeeper had work to do again, this time in getting Annabel Sutherland stumped off left-arm spinner Saika Ishaque.
DC needed Rodrigues to stand up and signs were there as she pulled Kerr for back-to-back fours. But the Kiwi leggie once again turned disruptor, snapping up a diving caught and bowled off a harmless delivery that got the edge of Rodrigues looking to run it down the leg side.
Sarah Bryce soon walked back through a needless run out and it was left to Marizanne Kapp, who was striking the ball well, and India U-19 skipper Niki Prasad to get DC over the line. Kapp punished Ishaque’s 16th over for 17 runs but when she was dismissed by Sciver-Brunt two overs later, the writing was pretty much on the wall for DC.
Earlier, Kapp had backed her captain’s call to bowl first with the kind of disciplined bowling that tied the MI openers in knots. She got the ball to nip away from the in-form Hayley Matthews and into the left-handed Bhatia desperately searching for runs. Shikha Pandey too found movement and the tight start by DC yielded rich rewards.
After a string of outswingers, Kapp got one to hold its line and take the inside edge of Matthews onto the stumps. Yastika ate up a dozen deliveries for four runs before a drive on the up fetched her and MI the first boundary in the fifth over. A similar uppish drive the next ball was caught diving low at covers by Rodrigues to hand Kapp her second.
Crawling at 20/2 at the end of the powerplay, a lot rested on the shoulders of Harmanpreet and Sciver-Brunt, two of MI’s best batters this season, to not only steady the ship but also guide it to a respectable total. They did so by initially treating the quality bowling with respect and restraint before shifting gears. Sciver-Brunt, who became the first player in WPL to cross the 500-run mark in a season, hit Sree Charani for back-to-back boundaries in the ninth over. Harmanpreet followed suit the next over, hoicking Sutherland for six and creaming a drive for four.
Harmanpreet’s driving on the night was exquisite; the kind that even the crafty Jonassen, who was picked up for three consecutive boundaries, had few answers to. Lanning cut off that boundary zone by placing a fielder for those drives but Harmanpreet’s pulls and flicks were also doing the talking.
From overs 10 to 15, MI accumulated 51 runs as Harmanpreet completed a 33-ball fifty. After Sciver-Brunt (30 – 28b) was caught sweeping in the 15th over with MI at 104/3, the hosts couldn’t get the late flourish they sought. While Amelia Kerr and Sajeevan Sajana fell cheaply, Harmanpreet fell to the trap set by Lanning as she deposited a length ball straight to the deep extra cover fielder.
As it turned out, she had done enough, for MI to get the job done on the night and for the tournament.
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