WPL 2023 Final: Mumbai Indians have been crowned champions of the inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League 2023 at Brabourne Stadium on Sunday. Mumbai Indians crushed Delhi Capitals by 7 wickets in the summit clash to lift their inaugural title.
Harmanpreet Kaur and Co. produced a sensational effort with the ball as they restricted Delhi to just 131 runs in the first innings. Wong ran through Delhi’s top-order, claiming the wickets of Verma (11), Capsey (0), and Rodrigues (9) to leave the team reeling at 35 for 3 inside the power play.
Shafali Verma failed to give a vital start, while the likes of Rodrigues and Capsey also departed cheaply. Delhi needed a partnership and M Kapp then joined hands with Lanning.
The duo stitched a vital partnership of 38 runs but couldn’t convert that into a big one. Melia Kerr broke the partnership as she took the vital wicket of M Kapp (18).
Delhi had high hopes for Lanning, who looked good at the crease. However, unfortunately, she too got out run-out after scoring valuable 35 runs in 29 deliveries. Wickets fell in quick succession after that and Delhi found themselves in huge trouble 79 for 9. Much to their respite, Shafali Pandey (27) and Radha Yadav (27) added crucial runs for the last wicket to take the team to a decent score of 131. However, it didn’t prove enough.
Delhi bowlers, though, started well as both Hayley Mathews (13) and Yastika Bhatia (4) were sent back early. But Harmanpreet Kaur and Nat Sciver then took the game away with a match-winning partnership of 72 runs for the third wicket.
To add a little spice to the game, Kaur got run out for 37 off 39 balls but Nat Sciver stayed there right till the end. She played an unbeaten knock of 60 runs in 55 balls and guided the team home with 3 balls left.
WPL 2023 Final Scorecard:
Brief scores: Delhi Capitals 131/9 in 20 overs (Meg Lanning 35, Radha Yadav 27*; Hayley Matthews 3-5, Issy Wong 3-42, Melie Kerr 2-18) lost to Mumbai Indians 134/3 in 19.3 overs (Nat Sciver-Brunt 60*, Harmanpreet Kaur 37; Radha Yadav 1-24) by seven wickets
WPL 2023 Most Valuable Player:
Hayley Matthews won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) title for her exemplary show with both and ball. She finished the WPL 2023 edition with 258 runs with the bat and 13 wickets with the ball in just 9 matches. Her highest score in the season was 77* runs against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
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