The Mumbai Indians are champions of the Tata Women’s Premier League (WPL) for the second time after a tense eight-run win over the Delhi Capitals in Saturday’s final at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
The 2023 champions were on the back foot early, losing the wickets of openers Hayley Matthews (3) and Yastika Bhatia (8) within the first six overs after Capitals skipper Meg Lanning put them in to bat after winning the toss.
Nat Sciver-Brunt and captain Harmanpreet Kaur then added a crucial 89 for the third wicket, providing stability to the Mumbai batting effort.
Kaur hit nine fours and two sixes on her way to a top score of 66 off 44 balls while Sciver-Brunt was more subdued in her approach, hitting four fours in her 30 off 28 balls in support.
Some crucial late runs from Amanjot Kaur (14*) helped Mumbai recover from 132-7 with two balls left in the 19th over to post a respectable 149-7 in their 20 overs.
Marizanne Kapp bowled beautifully for her 2-11 off four overs while Jess Jonassen and Shree Charani took two wickets, each.
Similar to the Indians, the Capitals lost their two openers within the first six overs, Lanning for eight and Shafali Verma for four.
They then lost Jess Jonassen two balls into the seventh over to be reeling at 37-3 before, not long after, Annabel Sutherland danced down the wicket and missed a ball from Saika Ishaque that was happily collected by wicket-keeper Yastika Bhatia who then carried out the stumping to make it 44-4 after eight overs.
Jemimah Rodrigues (30) and Sarah Bryce (5) then both fell in quick succession to leave the score now at 83-6 with one ball remaining in the 13th over.
Marizanne Kapp and Niki Prasad then made things interesting with a 40-run seventh wicket partnership before Kapp fell caught on the boundary by Matthews off the bowling of Sciver-Brunt for a top score of 40 from 26 balls to leave the score at 123-7.
Pandey tried her best with 25* off 23 balls but it wasn’t enough in the end.
Sciver-Brunt finished with 3-30 from her four overs while Amelia Kerr took 2-25 in support.
Mumbai Indians are now the first team to win multiple WPL titles while the Capitals have the unfortunate record of losing the final of all three editions, so far.