Going up against the Mumbai Indians can be challenging, however, our DC tigresses pulled off an epic 29-run win against the defending champions at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. The fact that our DC girls played their first ever home game makes this win a little more special. It also ensured that we maintained our table toppers’ tags.
Earlier in the day, after being sent into bat, the opening partnership of Meg Lanning and Shafali Verma once again set the tone for the innings, with the younger one going after the MI bowlers. She took a keen knack of hitting Shabmin Ismail, smashing two fours and two sixes. But after the second maximum, the South African bowler got the wicket of Shafali for 28 off 12 balls.
Her knock, along with a few boundaries from Meg, saw DC go past fifty inside the five overs. Skipper ensured that the momentum didn’t shift to the opposition. Capsey, who batted at no. 3, also scored 19 runs. Lanning, on the other hand, took a liking to Amelia Kerr, smashing the leg-spinner for two fours and two sixes before getting out to her for 53 runs from 38 balls. This was her third fifty of the season.
At the moment, DC were at 114 for 3 after 13 overs. After this, it was all about Jemimah, who lit up Qila Kotla with her exciting death overs batting. She started off slowly, with 13 runs from her 14 balls. But she clicked a switch in the last over of Ismail and smashed a couple of boundaries in the 16th over.
Jemimah followed that up with a couple more boundaries in the next over, followed by two more in the next over. In the 19th over, she smashed two sixes and a four to Nat Sciver-Brunt. With a four and six in the last over, Jemimah ensured that we ended with 192/4. In the last 19 balls of her knock, she smashed 56 runs, ending with 69 runs from 33 balls.
Moving to the second innings, Marizanne Kapp celebrated her comeback into the playing XI with a wicket of Yastika Bhatia in the very first over. In the second over, Shikha Pandey swung her first delivery nicely back into Sciver-Brunt to get the stumps.
Kapp continued her merryway even despite MI getting a few runs. She got the wicket of Harmanpreet Kaur in the third over, when the batter mistimed one shot to get caught at point.
Hayley Matthews who was watching all the madness unfold from the other end, managed to get going with the bat, scoring 29 quick runs. However, Jess Jonassen got her wicket with the penultimate ball in the powerplay to put MI at 54/4 in six overs.
Kerr hung around for a bit and then was dismissed 17 off the bowling of Titas Sadhu, who picked up her maiden WPL wicket. After that, Amarjot Kaur tried to stitch a stand with Pooja Vastrakar, scoring 42 runs off 27 balls. S. Sajana also scored 24 off 14, but the required rate kept rising, taking the game away from MI’s hand.
Jonassen eventually ended with her third three-wicket haul in as many matches this season. Shikha, Titas and Radha all got a wicket each while Kapp ended with a brace. Their bowling efforts ensured we pulled off a 29-run win in our first-ever home game.
Our next challenge will see us take on the UP Warriorz on March 8 on International Women’s Day.
