Jemimah Rodriguez scored her first half-century of the seasonImage Credit source: PTI
Delhi Capitals registered their second win in the fourth season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL). Delhi, which was runner-up for the last three consecutive seasons, had a bad start in the tournament. But new captain Jemimah Rodrigues played a match-winning half-century and gave Delhi a big win over Mumbai Indians by 7 wickets. Delhi achieved the target of 155 runs given by Mumbai in just 19 overs. This is the franchise’s second win in the tournament, while defending champion Mumbai’s third consecutive and fourth overall defeat.
Delhi’s strong bowling
In this match played on Tuesday 20th January in Vadodara Delhi Capitals Made a good start on the bowling front. Its bowlers had sent back both the Mumbai openers to the pavilion for just 21 runs in 4.1 overs. But here Mumbai captain Harmanpreet Kaur and vice-captain Nate Siver-Brunt increased Delhi’s problems by making an excellent partnership of 78 runs.
This legendary pair of Mumbai was dominating Delhi. In such a situation, young spinner Shri Charani made a comeback for the team by dismissing Kaur (41). However, Siver-Brunt scored a strong half-century and took the team to a worthy score of 154 runs at the loss of 5 wickets. Siver-Brunt scored 65 runs in 45 balls and remained unbeaten. Charani took the maximum of 3 wickets for 33 runs.
Jemima-Lizelle’s explosive batting
The bowlers did a good job and after this it was the turn of Delhi’s batsmen. The team had a target of 155 runs to win. Coincidentally, in the only win that Delhi had registered earlier in the season, it had got the target of 155 runs from UP Warriors. Once again this target proved auspicious for Delhi Capitals. But this was made possible by the explosive innings of opener Lizelle Lee. She scored 44 runs in just 28 balls and made an opening partnership of 63 runs with Shefali Verma (29).
Delhi had made a fast start by scoring 84 runs in 10 overs and lost only 2 wickets. But from here, there was a very slow partnership of 34 runs in 35 balls between captain Jemima and Laura Woolworth (17), which increased the problems. Woolworth was run out on the first ball of the 17th over. But from here Jemima changed gears and started batting furiously. Jemima (51 not out, 37 balls), who at one time scored only 26 runs in 28 balls, not only completed her half-century by scoring 25 runs in the next 9 balls, but also gave the team victory 6 balls earlier.