In the WBBL, the last time Meg Lanning’s T20 team lost a game was in November 2021. On Thursday (March 9), Harmanpreet Kaur’s Mumbai Indians broke that record and ended Delhi Capitals’ streak of not losing in the first WPL. They did this with an 8-wicket thrashing, which gave them their third straight win and kept them on top.
Match recap
Saika Ishaque (3-13) showed her mettle again by getting an early breakthrough, which led to a collapse of the top order, and then getting two breakthroughs in one over, which led to a second collapse of 4 for 3. This, along with Issy Wong’s 3-10, kept DC to a disappointing 105 in 18 overs, despite Lanning’s fighting 43 off 41 balls and a 50-run partnership with Jemimah Rodrigues (25 of 18). MI wouldn’t have had much trouble chasing down the target, given how many good batters they have, but Yastika Bhatia (41 runs off 32 balls) and Hayley Matthews (32 runs off 31 balls) set the stage with a 65-run opening stand. Even though the game’s outcome was clear from the start, losing the openers so quickly wouldn’t have made much of a difference in their NRR.
MI power play
Their opening partnership was the key to their strong start in the WPL. DC’s two previous powerplay scores were 57 and 62, with Lanning and Shafali Verma in charge early on. But MI was able to go against that trend, and how! Ishaque got rid of Verma while showing off her Purple Cap, and Pooja Vastrakar struck with her second ball of the game to get Alice Capsey to edge a simple catch to cover. DC had fallen to 24/2, but that quickly changed to 31/3 when Wong got Marizanne Kapp’s legstump.
Rodrigues, Lanning revive DC
Rodrigues, who was moved down in the order for this game, started off strong with three fours off Nat Sciver-Brunt in the eighth over. On the other side of the drinks break, Lanning hit Amelia Kerr for a hat trick of fours. The two were also very quick between the wickets. They scored 50 runs together in just 34 balls, which helped DC get back in the game.
Ishaque saves the day again.
Ishaque was first used by Mumbai at this ground, and the left-arm spinner still makes it hard for batters to hit the ball. Rodrigues was trying to cut, but he missed a flatter delivery on off that skidded on to move the stumps. Then, when Lanning stepped out to hit one over cover, he sent a simple catch to Harmanpreet and was out for 43 after 41 balls. Along with Ishaque, Matthews sent back Jess Jonassen, who played a small role in the last game, and Minnu Mani, who was making his first appearance in this game, in just four balls. DC had lost four wickets for three runs in nine balls over two overs, putting them at 84/7, which was a point from which they could not come back.
Bhatia and Matthews get very close to MI
Bhatia is often blamed for getting off to a slow start, but she got the chase off to a great start by hitting back-to-back drives off of Marizanne Kapp. This showed that she meant business right away, and she went on to hit three more drives off of the experienced South African seamer in the fifth over. On the other end, Matthews made up for lost time and early dots when she beat Shikha Pandey with a hat-trick of boundaries. With ease, Bhatia hit the first of two straight sixes she hit off Radha Yadav right after the powerplay, which brought in 47 runs. This gave the stand its fifty.
Minor problems, but still two points
When she trapped Bhatia LBW on 41, Tara Norris gave DC something to cheer about. The MI batter tried to overturn the call, but it didn’t help. Matthews hit two more fours in the next over, which gave her two more chances. However, Rodrigues’s stunning run-in from long-off ended her time in the middle at 32. But Sciver-Brunt (23* off 19) and captain Harmanpreet (11* off 8) kept the momentum going by finding the gaps easily to finish the chase with five overs left in the bank.
Briefly, Delhi Capitals lost to Mumbai Indians 109/2 in 15 overs (Yastika Bhatia 41, Haylaye Matthews 32, Tara Norris 1-4) by 8 wickets. Meg Lanning scored 43 runs for Delhi Capitals. Saika Ishaque and Issy Wong each took 3 wickets against them.
