On Saturday, the Mumbai Indians (MI) celebrated winning their second Women’s Premier League (WPL) title by beating the Delhi Capitals (DC) by just eight runs. This match was held at the Brabourne Stadium and was a repeat of last year’s final.
Harmanpreet Kaur, the MI captain, played an amazing game, scoring 66 runs off 44 balls, which was the best score in MI’s total of 149 runs for 7 wickets. Over the season, she scored 302 runs, the highest among the top five players, and her performances helped MI shine with great all-round players. One of them, Nat Sciver-Brunt, was the tournament’s top scorer and also took three wickets in the final.
As Sciver-Brunt defended a tricky 14 runs in the last over, MI players cheered and huddled together. Sadly for DC, this was their third final loss, all against MI. Even though the total runs seemed a bit low, MI had a strong chance to defend their score, and they needed to get DC’s strong opening batsmen out early.
Nat Sciver-Brunt took the first breakthrough by bowling out Meg Lanning with a clever delivery. In the next over, Shafali Verma was out LBW thanks to a perfect delivery from Shabnim Ismail. With both openers dismissed early, DC was in a tough spot. They needed a good partnership to recover, but Amelia Kerr struck again, getting Jess Jonassen to edge a catch.
After Jess, Annabel Sutherland was run out, and the pressure was on Jemimah Rodrigues. She tried to fight back with a couple of good shots but was out when aiming to push a simple delivery from Kerr. Soon, Sarah Bryce was also out due to a run-out, and it was left to Marizanne Kapp and Niki Prasad to get DC back in the game. Kapp played well, hitting 17 runs in one over, but after she got out, the chances for DC faded quickly.
Earlier, Kapp chose to bowl first, which paid off as she and Shikha Pandey bowled tightly, troubling MI’s openers. Kapp got Hayley Matthews out, and the MI batters struggled, crawling to just 20 runs after the first six overs.
Harmanpreet and Sciver-Brunt worked together to recover for MI, scoring run after run. Sciver-Brunt became the first player to score over 500 runs in a single WPL season. Harmanpreet’s shots were impressive, and she completed her half-century in just 33 balls.
Though MI lost a few wickets towards the end, Harmanpreet had already done enough to secure the win. It was a great night for Mumbai Indians as they took home the trophy again!
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