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Kapp brilliance denied as MI Women beat DC Women in final

cricket15 March 2025 18:28| © MWP
By:Neil Manthorp
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Mumbai Indians Women © PhotoShelter

Mumbai Indians Women’s captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, made a brilliant 66 from 44 balls to lead her team to victory by just eight runs against the Delhi Capitals Women in a pulsating final of the WPL at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday evening.

But the match was dominated by the best two allrounders in the Women’s game as South Africa’s Marizanne Kapp and England’s Nat Sciver-Brunt contributed crucial runs and wickets before Sciver-Brunt’s dismissal of Kapp effectively closed the deal for Mumbai.

The MI Women, strong favourites before the tournament began, compiled 149-7 before restricting the Capitals to 141 for nine in reply, with Kapp having heroically dragged her team back into the contest from 44 for four after eight overs with a pulsating 40 from just 26 balls with five fours and two sixes before miscuing a drive to mid off against Brunt.

Brunt then claimed two crucial wickets to finish with 3-30 to finish a magnificent tournament from a team and personal perspective.

Jemimah Rodrigues’s well-paced 30 from 21 balls kept the run-chase alive after failures from the Delhi ‘big names’ – captain Meg Lanning (13) was bowled by Brunt while Jess Jonassen (13) and Annabel Sutherland (2) were caught and stumped respectively.

Niki Prasad (25* from 23 balls) kept Delhi’s hopes alive until the very end with a six and a four but time, and balls, ran out and the result was done.

Earlier, Harmanpreet added 89 for the third wicket with the tournament’s top scorer, Sciver-Brunt (30), a partnership which contributed all-but 60 runs of the team's total. The captain swept, flicked and drove nine fours with two legside sixes while the Englishwoman was relatively sedate on a tricky, slow pitch with just four boundaries in her 28 balls but took her run tally beyond 500 in just seven matches.

Kapp started her remarkable match with bowling figures of 4-0-11-2 after taking the new ball but her heroic efforts were in vain, perhaps even overshadowed – with the ball at least – by 36-year-old country woman, Shabnim Ismail, whose four overs brought her a wicket at a cost of just 15 runs. Two of South Africa’s greatest women cricketers, one winner and one loser on the night. But both champions.

MUMBAI INDIANS WOMEN: Yastika Bhatia (wkt), Hayley Matthews, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Marmanpreet Kaur (captain). Amelia Kerr, Sajeevan Sajana, G.Kamalini, Amanjot Kaur, Sanskriti Gupta, Shabnim Ismail, Saika Ishaque

DELHI CAPITALS WOMEN: Meg Lanning (captain), Shafali Verma, Jess Jonassen, Jemimah Rodrigues, Annabel Sutherland, Marizanne Kapp, Sarah Bryce (wkt), Niki Prasad, Shikha Pandey, Minnu Mani, Nallapureddy Charani.