There was a pleasant embrace between Meg Lanning and Shabnim Ismail on the finish of the Ladies’s Premier League (WPL) match in Bengaluru. When Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals met earlier within the season, within the battle of retired worldwide superstars it was the South African pacer who appeared sharper and dismissed the DC captain with a peach. However on Friday, Lanning stamped her class, taking down Ismail with an array of boundaries, together with a surprising on-drive, as DC went on to beat MI in a one-sided contest to go prime of the desk. “I’ve performed rather a lot towards her and he or she’s an excellent competitor I really like arising towards her. So yeah, it was good to get a pair away right this moment,” Lanning stated after the match. It was simply one of many many issues that went her approach.
The ‘win-toss-win-match’ pattern continued as MI had been requested to bat and by no means bought going, managing simply 123/9. The run-chase was then damaged open early by Lanning and Shafali Verma – the WPL’s most prolific duo – as DC put collectively an ideal match to win with 33 balls to spare.
Whereas the chase gave the impression to be a formality, the sport was arrange by DC’s bowlers, led as soon as extra by veterans Shikha Pandey and Jess Jonassen. Whereas the Indian pacer was spectacular within the powerplay to forestall MI from getting off to a flier, Jonassen picked up the 2 wickets that mattered – that of the red-hot Nat Sciver-Brunt and captain Harmanpreet Kaur. It was additionally, arguably, the perfect fielding efficiency any crew has put collectively on this 12 months’s WPL, headlined by a catch of the match contender by Annabel Sutherland, who ran in 28m from lengthy on to tug off a low diving catch to dismiss Amelia Kerr.
Watch the catch right here:
A #TATAWPL Traditional 🤩
Annabel Sutherland plucks one out of skinny air 😮
Is that this the perfect catch of the season but? 🤔
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— Ladies’s Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) February 28, 2025
“It was an unimaginable catch You understand We discuss as a crew desirous to assault each ball that goes within the air and and attempt to get there. That was the epitome of that so I’m it was actually essential for us,” Lanning stated. “We needed to place all three sides collectively. We’ve had patches the place we’ve performed effectively to date however not the entire bundle. You wish to maintain bettering all through the match and we actually really feel like we’re doing that.”
Whereas there have been loads of good bowling performances on the evening, Lanning selected to spotlight one particularly in her post-match chat. Over three years of WPL, the previous Aussie captain has sometimes used each potential alternative to place the highlight on (even with out prompting typically) Indian home performers. And he or she gave a glowing overview of Minnu Mani’s bowling, because the offspinner impressed along with her flight and tempo variations throughout her spell of three/15. “Particular shout out to Minnu, she she’s been bowling extraordinarily effectively all through the match and picked up a few essential wickets for us as effectively. She’s bought some actually unimaginable expertise, she’s capable of flip the ball when she desires to after which some good variations as effectively. It’s been an actual enchancment from from the entire of our crew, however significantly a few of our native home Indian gamers which has been nice to see.”
Whereas going prime of the desk is vital, DC would have needed to handle their Web Run Charge earlier than the final section of this match, provided that solely the first-placed crew will get a direct entry to the title conflict. And so they did simply that, boosting their NRR from -0.223 to +0.201.
Transient scores: Mumbai Indians-W 123/9 (Harmanpreet Kaur 22; Jess Jonassen 3/25) misplaced to Delhi Capitals-W 124/1 in 14.3 overs (Meg Lanning 60*, Shafali Verma 43) by 9 wickets
