Live Report - Delhi Capitals vs Mumbai Indians, WPL final 2023

If this was a wrestling bout, it would’ve possibly been called off when Delhi Capitals were on life support at 79 for 9.

From there, the Capitals sensationally turned around the game courtesy Shikha Pandey and Radha Yadav to take the game into the last two overs, with Mumbai needing 21.

Then they crumbled as Nat Sciver-Brunt exhibited tremendous calm. Having steadied the innings with a 52-ball half-century, she swept Jess Jonassen for crucial boundary. That had a deflating effect on the Capitals.

Amelia Kerr managed to pick off two more boundaries to take them to the doorstep. Sciver-Brunt then fittingly finished the game off when she paddled Alice Capsey past short fine leg. She remained unbeaten on 60 to deliver Mumbai the inaugural WPL title.

Harmanpreet Kaur’s team had upstaged Meg Lanning’s and what looked like a one-sided final turned out to be quite a joy ride, as the grand finale ended with a last-over finish no one would’ve thought was possible at one stage.

This seems all too eerily familiar.

Harmanpreet Kaur playing some incredible shots and fighting for her team by taking them within touching distance of victory.

Then she falls against the run of play to throw the game open. And that one opening is enough for a Meg Lanning-led team to close-in.

Capitals were looking a tad deflated during the course of this Harmanpreet-Nat Sciver-Brunt partnership, until they have seemingly allowed Capitals some breathing space.

Harmanpreet didn't anticipate Shikha Pandey's swiftness at midwicket to fire a rocket throw at the bowler's end when she took off for a tight single. Terrific throw to Capsey, right on top of the stumps, sees her back.

At the end of nine overs, Delhi Capitals had a firm grip over proceedings at 45 for 2. Since then, the momentum has just shifted a bit in Mumbai’s favour.

Harmanpreet has brought out her trademark sweeps and has stepped on the gas. That trigger has led to some panic with Capitals suddenly losing their lengths, misfielding and conceding easy runs.

That small window of errors has allowed Sciver-Brunt to cash in too. In hitting 31 off the next four overs, Mumbai have ensured the asking rate hasn’t gone out of hand.

They need 57 off 42 with eight wickets in hand.

How the game turns.

It needs one spark to potentially lead to a wildfire.

Capitals, shell-shocked and in the dumps at 79 for 9, are now prying on batters like hawks on. mincemeat.

They've been completely switched on right from the first ball. Like they lost wickets to a full toss, they got their first with one when Yastika Bhatia swung one straight to deep midwicket off Radha Yadav.

Two overs later, Hayley Matthews is deceived in flight as she lobs one off a thick inside edge to Arundhati Reddy who takes an excellent catch at short midwicket.

Shikha Pandey had batted just once in the competition prior to the final.

Her second, tonight, may be the most crucial knock yet. At 79 for 9, this looked one-way traffic for Mumbai. But in putting together 52 off just 24 balls for the last wicket, the Capitals have given themselves some momentum and oodles of hope in their attempt to pull off a coup.

Mumbai Indians will be chasing 132 to clinch the inaugural WPL.

Pandey triggered the change of fortunes in the penultimate over when she walloped the first ball inside-out for six over deep cover. Radha Yadav has ensured a proper pendulum swing by finishing the innings by muscling Nat Sciver-Brunt for two big sixes.

Years later, if Hayley Matthews is interested in documenting her journey in the form of a book, it's likely India will occupy a special chapter.

Her exploits in Kolkata in 2016 is the stuff of legends. It helped West Indies beat Lanning's Australia to lift the T20 World Cup. That night, her 45-ball 68 fuelled West Indies' chase as they did the Gangnam dance with Darren Sammy & co at a packed Eden.

Seven years later, she's scripted another fairly tale in Mumbai. For the home team, Mumbai Indians, something no one could've imagined when she didn't attract a single bid in the first round of the WPL auction.

She was only picked at the fag end of a long auction day, in the accelerated rounds, but boy, hasn't she delivered an MVP-level performance all tournament.

In the grand final, she turns up with the ball and cooly finishes with figures of 3 for off her four overs. The icing on the cake being her third wicket, where she drew Taniya Bhatia forward and beat her in the air and off the pitch to rip through the inside edge and smash the stumps.

She's currently the season's leading wicket-taker too. What a player.

From 74 for 4, the Capitals have slipped to 79 for 9, with Matthews picking up three of those wickets.

If there's one player in the Capitals camp who knows Lanning better than most, it's Jess Jonassen. But pressure clearly can have a different effect in a crunch game.

Jonassen and Lanning must've spent countless hours together at training, but their association in the WPL final isn't a fruitful one. Jonassen sells her captain a dummy with a poor call for a single.

Lanning responds out of hope but knows halfway through that she was never going to make it. She didn't even wait for the big screen to signal the decision. The Capitals are crumbling and how.

Meg Lanning doesn't take a backward step.

Early losses, wickets falling in a heap, bowlers tying to exert control...no worries.

She just needs the bowlers to err by a millimetre to open up an acre, like she did in picking the first boundary after the powerplay off Amelia Kerr.

She was hit for a second four two balls later, but Kerr has hit back, albeit with the wicket off Marizanne Kapp in her next over with a sharp-turning legbreak.

Kapp anticipated more turn but this one skidded through after pitching to deviate a wee bit and kiss the edge through to Yastika Bhatia.

Just as the Capitals were counter-punching, Mumnbai have broken a dangerous 39-run stand.

Jemimah Rodrigues knows South Mumbai and the maidaans around it like the back of her hand. And this is as much home to her as it is to the Mumbai Indians.

She opened the scoring with two delightfully timed strokes through extra cover, but in trying to sustain that tempo, she has fallen to....you guess right, a full toss.

Tries to lean into a square drive but the ball curls away late and Rodrigues ends up slicing the low full toss to backward point. Capitals three down inside the powerplay with Issy Wong having the night of her life.

Another full toss. Another umpire's referral upstairs to check if this is above the waist. And the message is swiftly conveyed to the on-field umpires that it's not as the batter was a couple of steps outside the crease at the point of contact.

Alice Capsey, whose promotion from the lower middle order to No. 3 had yielded scores of 34, 38*, 22 and 38, has to now walk back for a two-ball duck.

Issy Wong, the hat-trick hero from the previous match, is on fire, as are Mumbai. Capitals are 12 for 2.

Mumbai Indians are celebrating.

But umpire Vrinda Rathi asks them to put the celebrations on pause because she thinks Issy Wong has bowled a waist-high full toss.

Shafali Verma, who was well inside the crease at the point of contact, sliced this full toss to backward point where Amelia Kerr ran backwards to complete the catch.

The third umpire has a couple of looks at the replays and conveys to the on-field umpire to signal 'OUT'.

Lanning is furious. She isn't bottling up her feelings and asks Vrinda for an explanation. But there isn't much she can do about.

After six and four, Shafali is out. Delhi Capitals 12/1 in the second over.

Another night, another toss lost. It's the eight toss Harmanpreet has lost this season.

"Relaxed for a couple of days before we switched back on," Meg Lannings says of their four-day break. "Spin has played more of a role here. Bowlers who have targeted the stumps a lot have been effective all tournament."

Capitals changes: Minnu Mani, the allrounder, comes in for Poonam Yadav, who wasn't called in to bowl a single over in the previous game.

Minnu has so far featured in just two games so far. Her lone outing with the bat was against Mumbai, where she made a 3-ball duck at No. 8 in a low-scoring game. She conceded 0-18 in three overs the only time she bowled, against Gujarat Giants.

Delhi Capitals: Meg Lanning (capt), Shafali Verma, Alice Capsey, Jemimah Rodrigues, Marizanne Kapp, Taniya Bhatia(wk), Minnu Mani, Jess Jonassen, Radha Yadav, Arundhati Reddy, Shikha Pandey

Mumbai Indians: Hayley Matthews, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Amelia Kerr, Pooja Vastrakar, Issy Wong, Amanjot Kaur, Humaira Kazi, Jintimani Kalita, Saika Ishaque