Kapp and Shafali give UP Warriorz a thrashing

Marizanne Kapp's mind-boggling figures of 3 for 5 and Shafali Verma's unbeaten 64 helped Delhi Capitals thrash UP Warriorz by nine wickets and collect their first two points in WPL 2024, in Bengaluru on Monday. Warriorz, after being restricted to 119 for 9, succumbed to their second straight defeat.

Four overs. One maiden. Five runs. Three wickets. Capitals could not have asked for a better start from their pace mainstay. Kapp carried forward her red-hot form from international cricket to the WPL to rattle Warriorz's top order.

In a brilliant display of swing bowling, Kapp started the first over conceding just a run. In her second over - which was a maiden - she removed Vrinda Dinesh, who chased a wide outswinger only to be caught at deep third. Her third over began with the wicket of Tahlia McGrath, who played down the wrong line to a back of a length delivery that went past her outside edge to take the top of off stump. Five balls later, Kapp had Warriorz captain Alyssa Healy as she miscued one to wide mid-off. Shafali did her part, running back to pluck out a clean superb catch.

Kapp bowled four overs straight to set the tone for Capitals.

From 16 for 3, Warriorz kept losing wickets at one end to be 57 for 5 and then 85 for 6. But Shweta Sehrawat, on her 20th birthday, held firm at her end. She took her time at the start and also benefited from two lives, but then got going. Sehrawat smashed legspinner Minnu Manni for a six with a slog-sweep and followed it up with three fours off Annabel Sutherland in the 17th over.

Sehrawat eventually fell to left-arm spinner Radha Yadav, who had picked up two wickets until then. She was stumped by Taniya Bhatia when she came down the track to hit a short, wide ball but completely failed to connect.

Radha, who varied her lengths cleverly, added one more wicket to her tally when she got rid of Sophie Ecclestone in the final over to finish with 4 for 20.

A target of 120 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium is hardly going to be a tough task for any side. And Capitals, who are coming off a four-wicket defeat against Mumbai Indians in the tournament opener, decided it was their chance to improve their net run rate. Meg Lanning and Shafali's 119-run opening stand completely blunted Warriorz and helped Capitals chase down the target in 14.3 overs.

Lanning was happy to rotate the strike initially, with Shafali - after getting out for 1 against Mumbai - bouncing back strongly with a 36-ball fifty. Shafali struck a boundary in every over of the powerplay to power Capitals to 57 for 0 by the end of the first six. She was merciless especially against McGrath, hammering two fours and a six off the sixth over. In no time, she moved to 41 off 22 balls and brought up her fifty with a six towards deep midwicket.

Lanning picked up pace too and eventually scored her fifty off 42 balls in what was the final over of the game.

Warriorz' attack looked one-dimensional: heavy on spin with McGrath being their only recognised seamer. They had replaced seamer Saima Thakor with left-arm spinner Gouher Sultana, and the move did not work on the night.