Navi Mumbai, March 20 (IANS) Marizanne Kapp, Shikha Pandey, and Jess Jonassen picked two wickets in a stellar bowling performance as Delhi Capitals restricted Mumbai Indians to a below-par 109/8 in 20 overs in Match 18 of Women’s Premier League (WPL) at Dr. D.Y Patil Stadium on Monday.
On a slow pitch which had a little bit of swing for the fast bowlers, Marizanne kept things tight with her double-strike in the Power-play before Shikha and Jess took over to star in a dominating bowling and fielding show for Delhi.
Barring a 37-run partnership off 29 balls between captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Pooja Vastrakar, there wasn’t much of note from Mumbai’s batting.
Marizanne’s superb show began in the third over when she got one to slant across Yastika Bhatia and nicked behind to wicketkeeper Taniyaa Bhatia. On the very next ball, she got one to nip in from outside the off-stump and knocked over the bails of Nat Sciver-Brunt.
Harmanpreet Kaur averted the Marizanne hat-trick ball with a solid forward defence and opened the bat-face late on the very next ball to guide it past the slip cordon for a boundary. But wickets continued to fall for Mumbai from the other end.
Hayley Matthews tried to whip a length ball from Shikha Pandey in the fourth over. But Jemimah Rodrigues timed her dive to the right side to perfection and completed a screamer of a low catch. Arundhati Reddy then got the ball to nip away off the seam in the seventh over and took the outside edge of Amelia Kerr’s drive to go into the gloves of Taniyaa.
Harmanpreet and Pooja Vastrakar launched Mumbai’s fightback in the tenth over against leg-spinner Poonam Yadav, while Harmanpreet swept through square-leg to get Mumbai’s first boundary in five overs, Pooja was glorious in her inside-out drive over extra cover for four and ended the over with a loft over long-on for six.
Pooja then walked down the pitch to hit Shikha over in-field in the off-side, before slapping one over mid-off for collecting two fours in the eleventh over. Her sparkling knock came to an end in the next over when she holed out too long-on off Jess Jonassen’s left-arm spin.
Harmanpreet whacked a low full toss from Shikha through the square leg in the 15th over. But in a bid to slog through leg-side on the next ball, she was caught at deep mid-wicket. Amanjot Kaur injected some momentum in the chase by pulling and sweeping Radha Yadav for back-to-back fours in the 16th over.
Delhi continued to maintain pressure by conceding mainly singles and dot balls in the last three overs. It resulted in Issy Wong going for a big heave off Jess in the final over. But she could only slice it to extra cover, followed by Amanjot’s run-out on the last ball of Mumbai’s innings.
Brief scores: Mumbai Indians 109/8 in 20 overs (Pooja Vastrakar 26, Issy Wong 23; Marizanne Kapp 2/13, Shikha Pandey 2/21) against Delhi Capitals
–IANS
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