[ad_1]
Mumbai Indians 134 for 3 (Sciver-Brunt 60*, Harmanpreet 37) count Capitals of Delhi 131 for 9 (Lanning 35, Pandey 27*, Radha 27*, Matthews 3-5, Wong 3-42) with seven wickets
Mumbai Indians are the inaugural WPL champions.
Harmanpreet Kaur’s team had finally left Meg Lanning’s behind. What seemed like a one sided ride turned out to be a real nail biter as the grand finale ended in a final finish few would have thought possible at one point.
Delhi Capitals was on life support for 79 for 9. Had this been a wrestling match, it would have been called off by now. But sensational efforts from Shikha Pandey and Radha Yadav helped them place a total of 131. From there, their bowlers took it to the last two overs as Mumbai needed 21.
After holding on for so long, Capitals crumbled at this most crucial moment as Nat Sciver-Brunt displayed a beautiful combination of composure and brutality. After stabilizing the innings with a 52-ball half century, she swept the first ball of the 19th over from Jess Jonassen to the boundary. It had a deflation effect on the capitals.
Amelia Kerr managed to pick two more fours to get them to the door. Sciver-Brunt then completed the game fittingly as she paddled Alice Capsey past the short penalty. She remained undefeated at 60 as Mumbai fought their way to the inaugural WPL title.
Wong’s three wickets after full throws
Shafali Verma, Alice Capsey, Jemimah Rodrigues.
Issy Wong will remember these three names for a long time. Not because they are all high quality hitters, but because she managed to win them all out with full pitches to leave the Capitals 35 for 3 in the fifth over.
Shafali’s wicket in particular brought a lot of drama, with the umpires checking for a no-ball. It was a tight call as the batter spooned a full pitch nearly waist high for a catch on back punt. Several replays later, Shafali was ruled out, leading to an animated exchange between Lanning and the officials.
Two balls later, Capsey bunted a full throw to short cover for a two-ball duck to end an impressive run of scores – 34, 38*, 22 and 38 – since her promotion to No. 3.
In Wong’s next turn, Rodrigues, who started with two sparkling cover drives, was carving a juicy full throw to the back.
The Lanning is running out
Lanning continued to counterpunch and quickly put up 38 with Marizanne Kapp before Capitals lost them both in the space of eight deliveries.
Kapp was caught behind a sharp broken leg from Kerr and Lanning was sold a dummy by her Australian teammate Jonassen; the two batters failed to communicate properly as they attempted to nick a sharp single to short cover. This marked the start of a sensational collapse as Capitals went from 74 for 3 to 79 for 9.
Hayley Matthews, who found no bidders in the first round of the WPL auction, came into her own with an incredible display of offspin and finished with figures of 3 for 5 from her four overs.
The icing on the cake was her third strike, as she pulled Taniya Bhatia forward and knocked her into the air and off the pitch to bowl her on the inside. That wicket also made her the most successful bowler in the league with 16 scalps.
Pandey and Yadav’s final battle
Pandey batted for only the second time in the league and decided she wasn’t going to throw in the towel. In Yadav she found an ally as the two played an unreal 52 from 24 balls for the last wicket.
Pandey caused the change of fortune in the penultimate over when she flipped Wong inside out for six over cover and followed that up with a great haul to the square leg fence.
Yadav then provided a good swing, muscled Sciver-Brunt two big sixes to end the innings. Pandey finished 27 not off 17 balls while Yadav had sacked 27 off 12.
The capitals suddenly had hope.
Mumbai rocked early
Wickets from full pitches continued to appear as Yastika Bhatia hoisted Yadav to deep midwicket to give Capitals an early strike. Between overs 2.3 and 7.2, Capitals kept up the pressure, preventing Mumbai from scoring any bounds. The big bonus in between was Matthews’ wicket, brilliantly caught by Arundhati Reddy on short midwicket at Jonassen to leave Mumbai at 23 for 2.
Harmanpreet and Sciver-Brunt calm nerves
Capitals were sharpening their axes. Lanning’s tactful placement in the field had smothered the run-up. Harmanpreet struggled at 2 at 9. Sciver-Brunt was at 7 at 18.
The England all-rounder broke the deadlock with a neat inside-out lift over extra cover in the eighth over and from then on Mumbai found boundaries with regularity.
Finding her touch, Harmanpreet brought out her powerful swing and pull to make up for her slow start. Sciver-Brunt was more calculating and crafty, using the pace of the ball to score on either side of the wicket in the V just behind her.
Without furiously playing a shot, the pair lifted a 72-point stand to put Mumbai on the path to victory. Then came another twist. Harmanpreet’s runout with 37 needed on 23.
But Kerr proved why she is a top class all-rounder. She hit Jonassen for two bounds in a 19th over that accounted for 16 runs. At that point, you knew the pendulum had really swung in the direction of Mumbai.
[ad_2]
Source link