Mumbai Indians’ three-match victory march has come to an end, and it’s Delhi Capitals blowing that whistle to halt it again. This time though, unlike the tense, stuttered scrap to the finish line like in the previous contest, they overhauled the target with a cozy, comfortable cruise. It was not simply a win that helped them bag two points; it was a statement of dominance, a reminder of the strength they possess and one that they threaten to unleash in the critical half of the ongoing Women’s Premier League.
With the target to chase as low as 124, it was always expected to be easy work in the second innings for Delhi Capitals. That Shafali Verma and Meg Lanning, the most destructive pair in WPL history, decided to twin strong on the night made the workload far easier.
Defending a low total, Mumbai Indians found an early sniff, with Lanning yet again, getting beaten by an incoming delivery. Ismail’s in-nipper hit Lanning on the pads on the first ball of the run-chase, and a desperate Mumbai Indians even went for a review, but in vain. Ismail peppered the out-of-form DC captain with some steam, but she countered it with elegance, driving an overpitched delivery for a boundary and then steering the next through slip and gully for another.
At the other end, Shafali authoritatively took on Nat-Sciver Brunt’s short-pitch barrage and smashed her all around, the most productive of the overs yielding 16 runs. With 57 runs ticked off in the powerplay, the early carnage by the duo closed the contest. But the assault was reserved for no one. Not even Amelia Kerr, who followed with her legbreaks.
It’s only on rare days that cumulatively neither Ismail, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Kerr nor Hayley Matthews makes an impact with bat or ball. Friday evening’s contest was a rare witness to that off-day for them, and as a result, Mumbai Indians put on one of their most toothless performances, the kind of off-day where nothing worked out — like it was for Royal Challengers Bengaluru a day earlier. But for as off a day as it was for the inaugural champions, with not a single performer standing out, it was as clinical a display from Delhi Capitals on all fronts.
The signals didn’t come on early, with Marizanne Kapp struggling to find her lengths and Yastika Bhatia and Hayley Matthews both pulling a boundary each within the first four balls of the innings. The early tempo was set, but then came the challenge that has befuddled many team coaches in the Bengaluru leg – the uncertainty of the conditions, the uncertainty of the gameplans and the inability to pinpoint what exactly is troubling the batters in the powerplay beyond the obvious movement of the ball.
Shikha Pandey was quick to find her lengths, and just when it seemed that Mumbai Indians could take the early advantage, she got an edge off Bhatia’s bat to the ‘keeper en route to a wicket-maiden in the last over of the powerplay. It proved to be the turning point of the contest, from where Mumbai Indians struggled to recover.
They ended up consuming 55 dot deliveries. Boundaries too were rare. In the post-powerplay period, there were only six hits to the fence, and one six. MI batters did their bit to manufacture shots on a slowish surface, but Delhi Capitals had also strung through one of their most disciplined performances with the ball through the middle and end phases. Even as the scoring rate was underpar, briefly, Harmanpreet Kaur and Sciver-Brunt had promised to set a strong stage for a late surge. Both departed in quick succession, and the incoming batters didn’t find it any easier to get going.
