Lanning, Jonassen and Radha slay Giants to propel Capitals to the top

Meg Lanning's half-century and another class bowling display by Jess Jonassen propelled Delhi Capitals to the top of the WPL table and kept Gujarat Giants winless in Bengaluru on Sunday.

Having won the toss and opted to bowl, Giants were ragged in the field, missing five chances as they sought their first win of the season. One of those was Lanning, and she made them pay with a 41-ball 55 despite Meghna Singh's impressive four-wicket haul. Lanning moved past 9,000 T20 runs during the course of her innings, which was the stand-out for Capitals for whom Alice Capsey made a start and Annabel Sutherland played a neat cameo of 20 from 12.

Ashleigh Gardner threatened with a 31-ball 40 but when she fell to Jonassen, who backed up her 3 for 21 against RCB on Thursday with 3 for 22, Giants were left still searching for a first victory since their sixth match of WPL 2023. Radha Yadav claimed a valuable 3 for 20 for Capitals to put the result beyond any doubt.

Titas Sadhu, making her WPL debut after seven T20Is for India, opened the bowling in the absence of Marizanne Kapp and started with a maiden as Capitals launched their defence of 163 for 8. Shikha Pandey struck with her third ball, an absolute gem which swung in late and snuck through the gap between Laura Wolvaardt's bat and pad to crash into the top of leg stump, removing the South Africa opener for a three-ball duck. Pandey could have had another moments later when she struck Beth Mooney on the pad in line with middle stump but Capitals errantly chose not to review the on-field reprieve.

Phoebe Litchfield helped herself to 11 runs off Sadhu's second over. Then three fours in four balls to Mooney and Litchfield off Pandey had Giants cruising in the fourth over. But Jonassen entered the attack and pinned Mooney on the front pad adjacent to the stumps and Giants had to try and rebuild. Jonassen struck again, however, when Litchfield spooned one straight to mid-off and the momentum swung firmly towards Capitals.

Radha, at deep midwicket, put down a catch off Veda Krishnamurthy, on 6, but crucially Giants were well behind on 41 for 3 at the end of the powerplay. After seven overs, they had already faced 25 dot balls. Gardner cut loose with a 78m six and four off Arundhati Reddy so that at the halfway point of the innings Giants were 72 for 4, needing 92 more. Jonassen returned to the attack with Giants needing 60 from six overs and she all but ended their hopes, putting the ball on a length outside off-stump as Gardner advanced, swung and missed. Taniya Bhatia whipped off the bails with Gardner too far down the track and Giants too far behind.

Shafali Verma struck the first ball she faced, from Tanuja Kanwar, through square leg for four with impeccable timing and two balls later lofted a six back over the bowler's head. To make matters worse for Giants, Kanwar dropped a return catch off Shafali at the end of the over, which cost 12 runs there and then, and who was to know how many more at that point. As it turned out, Shafali added just three more before Meghna had her comfortably caught by Wolvaardt at square leg. Lanning and Capsey settled into a rhythm and took Capitals to 51 for 1 by the end of the powerplay, but Meghna struck again with the crucial wicket of Capsey, who was in good form with scores of 75 and 46 heading into the match. Meghna ended Capsey's latest innings on 27 with a tempter outside off stump, sliced to Kanwar at backward point, and she wasn't done yet.

That sent Capitals into their shell as 19 deliveries came and went without a boundary. Lanning broke that by thumping debutant Tarannum Pathan over long-off for a maximum and from there she looked busy once more. Lanning should have been gone for 30 when she spooned a Mannat Kashyap delivery straight to mid-off, where Kathryn Bryce missed a sitter. Gardner had conceded 11 runs off her first over and her second went for 13 as Lanning moved within one clean strike of her fifty. She got there with an authoritative jab to the right of midwicket which was so well hit it evaded Gardner's best efforts to stop it just inside the rope at deep midwicket. Another four over cover came off the next ball but it was Lanning's anguish and Meghna's joy when D Hemalatha moved to her left and held on at cover point to stop the Capitals skipper in full flow after her second half-century of the campaign.

Jemimah Rodrigues laboured to 7 off 10 balls before Mannat Kashyap had her taken by Pathan at short third, but with Sutherland - in the side for Marizanne Kapp - and Jonassen at the crease, Capitals remained dangerous. Sutherland hit a monster 76m six off Bryce and, two balls later, Jonassen was let off by Hemalatha, who copped a blow to the forehead as the ball flew through her hands at deep midwicket and ended up needing a concussion substitute. Jonassen dispatched a Gardner full toss over the fence at deep square leg but was well caught behind by Mooney next ball. Kanwar bowled an excellent 17th over and was rewarded with the wicket of Sutherland, caught by Gardner at deep midwicket. Meghna juggled a catch at long-on to remove Arundhati Reddy and give Gardner her second, the look on the bowler's face making her relief palpable. After Kashyap shelled one at extra cover, Meghna trapped Radha lbw with the last ball of the innings, to become the first Indian fast bowler to pick up a four-for in the WPL.