WPL final: Thrilling finish guaranteed as best sides meet

By winning the first five matches on the trot, Mumbai Indians become everyone’s favourite to not just reach the final of the inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL) but also for the trophy. But then they hit a roadblock.

DC vs MI, WPL final: Live streaming details

Back-to-back defeats to UP Warriorz and Delhi Capitals took the wind out of their sails. The first team to qualify for WPL 2023 playoffs eventually finished the league phase with six wins and 12 points, the same as Delhi Capitals but a spot behind them in second in the points table on the basis of NRR (Net Run Rate).

DC never had a winning streak as crazy as that of MI but showed enough consistency to finish at the top of the league table and qualify directly for the final.

Mumbai had to beat third-placed UP Warriorz in the Eliminator to finally make it to the final.

And in the summit clash, Mumbai once again face the consistent Delhi for a fight to make history. The winner will be crowned the first-ever WPL champion and none of the teams will be willing to give an inch.

For Mumbai, their biggest concern is the form of the skipper Harmanpreet Kaur. After three fifties in the first five games, Harmanpreet’s best has been 25 in the last four matches. The biggest run-makers for MI had been its top-order players — Yastik Bhatia, Hayley Matthews, Nat Sciver-Brunt and Harmanpreet. Along with the captain, the other three have also witnessed a dip in form. Leading to defeats against UPW and DC in the league phase.

Even in the last league game against Royal Challengers Bangalore, it was the contributions of Amelia Kerr and Pooja Vastrakar from the middle-order that helped bail MI out.

The good news is that Yastika and Matthews got useful 20-plus scores in the Eliminator that MI won by 72 runs, while Nat Sciver-Brunt dazzled with her 72 not out off 38 balls. Harmanpreet could only get 14 in the match.

To have any chance of winning a trophy, Harmanpreet would need to fire or hope for her top-order batters to find their best form and not leave the job to the middle or lower order players.

MI don’t have to think much about their bowling though.

Pacer Issy Wong took WPL’s first hat-trick in the Eliminator against UPW. Also, Saika Ishaque (15 wickets), Matthews (13), Kerr (13) and Wong (12) hold the second, third, fourth and fifth place respectively in the highest wicket-takers list currently in WPL 2023.

On the other hand, DC are captained by Meg Lanning, probably the best skipper in women’s cricket. Lanning recently led Australia to a record-extending sixth T20 World Cup title and leads the batting chart currently in WPL 2023 with 310 runs in eight matches at a strike rate of 142.

Delhi also have a strong Indian core of Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Shikha Pandey and Radha Yadav. Players who can be the deciding factor in the final.

Also on their side is South Africa’s Marizanne Kapp. One of the best all-rounders going around, Kapp has so far scored 159 runs and has taken nine wickets.

All in all, both teams have a bunch of match-winning players, but whichever team has them firing on all cylinders on Sunday will eventually have the trophy in their kitty.

The match will be played at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai and will start at 7.30 PM IST.

Head-to-head: DC and MI have played two matches against each other so far. MI won the first match by eight wickets and lost the second one by nine wickets.

Squads:

Delhi Capitals: Meg Lanning (c), Jemimah Rodrigues (vc), Shafali Verma, Alice Capsey, Radha Yadav, Shikha Pandey, Marizanne Kapp, Titas Sadhu, Laura Harris, Tara Norris, Jasia Akhtar, Minnu Mani, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Poonam Yadav, Jess Jonassen, Sneha Deepthi, Arundhati Reddy, Aparna Mondal.

Mumbai Indians: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Nat Sciver-Brunt, Amelia Kerr, Pooja Vastrakar, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Heather Graham, Isabelle Wong, Amanjot Kaur, Dhara Gujjar, Saika Ishaque, Hayley Matthews, Chloe Tryon, Humaira Kazi, Komal Zanzad, Priyanka Bala, Sonam Yadav, Neelam Bisht, Jintamani Kalita.

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