Mumbai Indians, after losing a thriller in the opening game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Friday night, came back strongly in their second game as they thrashed Delhi Capitals by 50 runs in third match of the Women’s Premier League at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Saturday night.
Nat Sciver-Brunt and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur struck with the willow and then fresh recruit Nicola Cary took three wickets to help the defending champions to ease past three-time table-toppers Capitals, who were being led by Jemimah Rodrigues for the first time.
Chasing a huge 196 for victory, Capitals were off to a poor start and were soon reduced to 33 for four in the sixth over. Carey’s early seam movement knocked over the off stumps of Shafali Verma and Laura Wolvaardt, before she also accounted for Marizanne Kapp. From 33 for 4, Capitals sunk to 86 for 6 as Amelia Carr too joined the party with an economical spell. They eventually ended up with 145.
Batting first, Mumbai Indians were propped up by Sciver-Brunt and Kaur as they were still without injured allrounder Hayley Matthews. Sciver-Brunt struck a stroke-filled half-century and then Kaur used her power-hitting to take Mumbai to a more than competitive score.
For the second game in a row, Mumbai openers failed. Kerr fell for a duck while G Kamalini struggled to 16 off 19. Kerr edged her first legal delivery, an outswinger from Chinelle Henry, behind, as Lizelle Lee completed a diving catch on her second attempt. Kamalini also handed a diving catch to Lee, soon after she smashed Nandani Sharma for consecutive fours down the ground, but the debutant’s riposte earned her a maiden WPL wicket with Kamalini’s thick outside edge.
Sciver-Brunt then led Mumbai’s revival as she smashed three fours in her first four balls to different corners of the ground. She collected another pair of consecutive fours, again going after Henry, and took Mumbai to 43 for 1 in the powerplay. While Sciver-Brunt went about finding the boundaries against the spinners too for a 32-ball fifty, Kaur took her time to reach 15 off 17 before launching into an onslaught.
Kaur dispatched Henry for six over long-on. She followed it with her trademark loft over the covers for four, to take Mumbai past 100 at the end of the 13th over. Sciver-Brunt then outfoxed Minnu Mani with late adjustments for three fours in the next over, which went for 14, and even though the England batter was soon caught for 70 at cover, Mumbai were all set for a strong finish on 127 for 3 after 15 overs.
Kaur then found a hard-hitting partner in Carey, who reverse-pulled for one of her four fours during her 21 off 12. But it was Harmanpreet’s clean striking that left Capitals’ skipper Rodrigues sweating. Kaur hit four back-to-back fours in the last over bowled by Shree Charani to help Mumbai collect 53 runs in the last four overs.
With Capitals releasing Meg Lanning, WPL’s second-highest scorer, before the auction, they had really big shoes to fill at the top of the order. It didn’t happen on Saturday, at least, as WPL debutant Lee fell for 10.
After the early collapse, Capitals needed a stiff 150 runs from 78 balls. Chinelle Henry’s hitting from No. 7 was the only silver lining for Capitals. While she collected boundaries, wickets fell at the other end, and the asking rate climbed from over 12 after the halfway mark to nearly 20 by the time four overs were left.
Henry brought up her second WPL fifty in eight innings with a big six over long-on, but once she fell for 56 with the score 133, Capitals lasted just 11 more balls for 12 runs, before going down in their season opener.
Brief scores: Mumbai Indians 195/4 in 20 overs (Harmanpreet Kaur 74 no, Nat Sciver-Brunt 70; Nandani Sharma 2/26) beat Delhi Capitals 145 (Chinelle Henry 56; Amelie Kerr 3/24, Nicola Carey 3/37).
