Image Credit- BCCI
The Delhi Capitals’
home stretch has gotten off to the best possible start. Meg Lanning and Jemimah
Rodrigues’ half-centuries helped them easily defeat the Mumbai Indians, and all
of their bowlers had a great evening out afterwards. With eight points and a
good net run rate, they are now atop the standings and becoming harder to
follow.
In the third over, there was a thunderous thud into Lanning’s pad. Ismail had
her hands on her head, while the umpire remained still. But little did Shabnim
Ismail realise that she had broken the record for the fastest delivery in
women’s cricket history. It registered at 132.1 kph.
When Shafali Verma
mishandled a cross-batted swat to mid-on, Ismail ought to have got her in the
same over, but Saika Ishaque took advantage of the situation. Ismail was
furious. However, she was about to suffer even more when Shafali struck her
with back-to-back sixes in the subsequent over; the shovel down the ground with
his bottom hand seemed like a blow to the body. But when Ismail had Shafali
nick off the next ball, she got the final laugh.
Lanning hit a deep ball that Nat Sciver-Brunt offered. Lanning maintained her
form as the ball soared past the long-on boundary and landed on the bleachers.
It was evident how much she relished it. We had not yet seen Lanning’s avatar
in WPL 2024, but it conveyed her emotions.
Her shot range
improved after the first six. She demonstrated her composure by pulling off her
signature cutbacks with ease, even on deliveries that hardly bounced. In the
12th over, she took legspinner Amelia Kerr for a run of 4, 6, and 4. She was
very harsh on her. Before long, she used her trademark cut to score her third
half-century of the year off of 36 balls. She was caught wonderfully by Kerr at
deep midwicket after hitting a pull.
Rodrigues was on
eight off eight when Lanning was substituted out. Additionally, she was on 13
off 14 going into the final five overs. She then turned on a switch. When she
finally decided it was time to leave, she used a straightforward mantra to
defeat the bowlers. She positioned herself outside, hunched down, and waited
for her body to respond.
Rodrigues cleanly swung Ismail into the midwicket barrier as she went slow and
full outside off. Rodrigues scythed her over point as she went wide yorker.
Additionally, Rodrigues assisted Pooja Vastrakar in reaching the fine leg
boundary after her short bowl.
She reached every
part of the pitch as she cut and lofted Sciver-Brunt for 17 off the penultimate
over, indicating that there was more to come. After failing to score early in
her innings, Rodrigues made an incredible acceleration in the final five overs,
scoring 69 not out off 33 balls.
Yastika Bhatia was bowled by Marizanne Kapp in the first over as she skidded to
be bowled. In the second, Sciver-Brunt was surrounded by a Shikha Pandey
inswinger and was eventually castled. It was almost over for Mumbai when
Harmanpreet Kaur fell in the fourth, giving him the advantage to put an end to
Kapp.
They kept hurtling
from one wicket to another from there on, with only Amanjot Kaur and S Sajana
offering some kind of fight to make 42 and 24 not out respectively to reduce
the margin of defeat that puts Mumbai in a slightly precarious position with
three league games remaining.