The Mumbai Indians Women are crowned as the champions of the inaugural edition of the Women’s IPL. The final lived up to its hype with the 2 best teams competing for the trophy. The match was getting extremely close , but Mumbai Indians held their nerves to emerge as the Champions. Nat Sciver Brunt with her unbeaten half-century led the side to victory in a tense final which had many ups and downs.
As it happened
Winning the toss, Delhi Capitals opted to bat first on a good batting wicket. The Capitals lost an early wicket in Shafali Verma on a controversial full toss ball. The umpire checked it upstairs and the call was touch and go, which went in favor of Mumbai. Capsey was soon out on a full toss where MI skipper Harmanpreet took a brilliant diving catch. Delhi were 3 down at the end of the powerplay.
Since then, the Capitals were always behind the game and needed to build partnerships. In the middle overs, Delhi were not able to rotate the strike which resulted in frustration among the Delhi batters. As run scoring became hard, Delhi lost the in form skipper via a run out. There was a mixup between Lanning and Jonassen with Lanning getting run out.
Hayley Matthews bowled a spell of a lifetime. The West Indian, who was unsold in the auction, bowled 2 maidens in her four overs giving away just 3 runs and taking 3 wickets. Due to her brilliant spell, the Capitals were tumbling at 79-9. But Sikha Pandey and Radha Yadav stitched a crucial partnership to help the Capitals reach 131. At one point, even a target of 100 runs seemed like a distant dream, but the two played some fearless attacking shots.
Mumbai were rocked hard early in the chase as they were tottering at 23-2 in the fourth over. But Kaur and Nat Sciver Brunt stitched a patient partnership of 72 runs for the third wicket. Nat was 18 off 30 balls during the chase and was completely looking in her shell. But as the partnership progressed, she started to blossom. She scored crucial boundaries whenever the team needed. She changed gears in the last 5 overs and kept calm throughout the innings. The 2 batters didn’t let the spinners settle in as they kept playing sweeps and reverse sweeps to disrupt the rhythm of the spinners.
Harmanpreet Kaur got out just after the timeout, with things still in the balance. Still, 37 runs were needed in the last 4 overs. But a crucial cameo from Kerr took Mumbai over the line. Fittingly, it was Nat Sciver Brunt who hit the winning runs in the final.
Jhulan just mentioned Harman’s role at the post-match interview. She said that she assumed complete accountability for everything, from overseeing everyone’s food to serving as the team’s captain. Mumbai definitely played as a closely-knit team, were very strong throughout the tournament, and definitely deserved to win the WPL.
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