Mumbai Indians beat Delhi Capitals to become inaugural WPL champion

Mumbai: Mumbai Indians beat Delhi Capitals by seven wickets to become the inaugural champions of the TATA WPL at the Brabourne Stadium here on Sunday.

The MI players put on an allround show as they bowled, batted and fielded brilliantly to lift the championship.

Issy Wong (3/42) and Hayley Matthews (3/5) starred with the ball with three wickets each as they helped MI restrict DC to 131/9. Nat Sciver-Brunt then played a match-winning knock of 60* off 55 balls, ably supported by Harmanpreet Kaur (37 off 39), as MI chased down the target in the last over in a tight finish.

Chasing 132, MI got off to a mixed start. Hayley Matthews got going as she smacked the third ball of the innings through covers for four, off Marizanne Kapp and unleashed a square drive off the last ball to make it two fours in the over.

Lanning brought on Radha Yadav from the other end for the second over and the move worked as she had Yastika Bhatia caught at deep mid-wicket after being hit for a four off the earlier ball.

Matthews then flicked one through mid-wicket off Kapp for a four. However, Lanning's another bowling change worked as she brought on Jess Jonassen in the fourth over and she had Matthews caught at mid-wicket. It was brilliant field placement from captain Lanning which worked wonders.

The DC bowlers tightened the screws and restricted MI to 27/2 in the Powerplay.

Nat Sciver-Brunt broke the boundary drought as she lofted one wide of long off for four, off Radha Yadav. MI reached 51/2 at the half-way mark.

Harmanpreet Kaur and Nat Sciver Brunt took the cautious route at first but then upped the scoring with the required run rate creeping up. The pair gathered 12 runs off the 12th over from Capsey.

Harmanpreet swept one powerfully through square leg off Jonassen for a four and then Nat Sciver-Brunt paddled one to fine leg for a couple to bring up the 50-run stand as they scored 9 from the Jonassen over.

Lanning brought back Kapp and she bowled a tight over, giving away just five. Harmanpreet hit a four off the first ball of Radha Yadav's last over but the left-arm spinner bounced back to concede just two singles off the next five balls.

In the next over, Nat Sciver-Brunt sliced one through backward point for a four off Shikha Pandey as the pair collected 8 runs off the 16th over.

The pendulum swung once again as DC broke the 72-run stand via a brilliant tag-team work from Shikha Pandey and Alice Capsey to run Harmanpeet (37 off 39) out off the first ball of the 17th over.

Nat Sciver-Brunt though went from strength to strength as she hit two fours off the same capsey over to bring the equation down to 26 needed off 18 balls. Shikha Pandey bowled a tight 18th over and conceded just five runs. The equation came down to 21 off 12.

Nat Sciver-Brunt then released the pressure and brought up her fifty off 52 balls as she swept one behind square leg for a four off the first ball of the 18th over bowled by Jonassen.

Kerr then slog-swept one to deep mid-wicket and smacked one through covers for back to back fours in the same over to bring the equation down to 5 needed off 6.

Kerr took a single off the first ball of the last over. Nat Sciver-Brunt pulled one to deep mid-wicket for two off the next ball. The England all-rounder then fittingly hit the winning runs as she shuffled across and scooped one to fine leg for a four to win the match by seven wickets and spark wild celebrations.

Earlier, Delhi Capitals captain Meg Lanning won the toss and elected to bat. They made one change to the side as Minnu Mani replaced Poonam Yadav in the starting eleven while Mumbai Indians went unchanged.

Nat Sciver-Brunt started off well with a disciplined over and gave away just two runs in the first over. Shafali Verma started off in style as she hit the first ball of the next over from Issy Wong for a six over long on and slashed the next one wide of third man for a four.

Wong, however, bounced back to dismiss Shafali off the next ball as she miscued a high full toss to backward point. There was an umpire's review for waist high no ball check and was subsequently declared out.

Wong struck again a ball later as she had Alice Capsey caught brilliantly by Amanjot Kaur at extra cover. There was again a waist high no ball check but replays showed it was below waist height and the third umpire declared it out.

Jemimah Rodrigues started off with a wonderful cover drive for a four as 14 runs and two wickets came in a roller-coaster second over.

Lanning wasn't impacted by what was happening at the other end as she hit back to back fours off Nat Sciver-Brunt and Rodrigues unfurled another brilliant cover drive as the pair collected 13 runs from the third over. Saika Ishaque bowled a tight over and gave away just five runs.

Wong then returned and scalped her third wicket, with another full toss as Rodrigues hit one straight to backward point.

DC trudged to 38/3 at the end of the Powerplay.

Lanning picked up the scoring as she hit a couple of fours off Amelia Kerr. MI pulled things back for the next couple of overs, conceding just eight runs.

Lanning and Marizanne Kapp released the pressure a bit as they hit a couple of fours off Ishaque. Just when it seemed that a partnership was developing, Harmanpreet Kaur brought back Kerr and the move worked as she had Kapp caught behind with a beautiful leg-spinner.

Amanjoy then pulled off another brilliant fielding effort to provide a crucial moment in the match as she combined with keeper Yastika Bhatia to run Lanning (35 off 29) out after there was a mix-up between the DC captain and Jess Jonassen. DC were reduced to 74/5 at the end of 12 overs.

Wickets kept falling as Kerr had Arundhati Reddy caught at short fine leg. Matthews pulled off a splendid caught-and-bowled to send back Jess Jonassen for 2(11). Matthews struck in her next over again as she had Minnu Mani stumped for 2 and cleaned up Taniya Bhatia with a beauty to finish with figures of 4-1-3-5.

DC lost six wickets for just six runs in the 11th to 16th over phase. Shikha Pandey then showed some fight as she went on the counter-attack and added crucial 52 unbeaten runs off 24 balls with Radha Yadav to help DC cross the 100-run mark.

Radha finished it off in style as she hit two sixes off the last two balls of the innings off Nat Sciver-Brunt to help DC post 131/9. (UNI)