Courtesy: BCCI/WPL
On Saturday, March 15, the final of the third edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) was a humdinger as Mumbai Indians (MI) defeated Delhi Capitals (DC) by eight runs at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai, to win their second title. After MI posted a total of 149/7 on the board, thanks mainly to the fifty scored by captain Harmanpreet Kaur, the DC batting lineup had an early collapse before Marizanne Kapp played an exceptional innings, but it wasn’t enough as they lost their third consecutive WPL final.
For the unversed, it was Meg Lanning, the captain of DC, who called the toss right, and decided to field first in good conditions for batting. Marizanne Kapp was exceptional with the ball for her team in the power play stage, taking the key wickets of Hayley Matthews and Yastika Bhatia before finishing her four-over spell with figures of 2/11, delivering four overs consecutively before Harmanpreet Kaur and Nat Sciver-Brunt resurrected the MI innings.
The England international scored 30 runs in 28 balls during an 89-run stand for the third wicket, which put MI in a decent position to reach a par total in the WPL 2025 final. But, a flurry of quick wickets for DC, including Harmanpreet Kaur, who scored 66 runs in 44 balls with nine fours and two sixes, meant that MI were restricted to a below par total of 149/7 in their allotted 20 overs.
Apart from Marizanne Kapp, the likes of Jess Jonassen and Shree Charani picked up a couple of wickets each in their respective bowling spells as well. In the run chase, DC had a horrible start as they lost their in form opening pair of Meg Lanninga and Shafali Verma within the first three over of their innings before MI dismissed the likes of Jess Jonassen and Annabel Sutherland from Australia in quick succession.
Jemimah Rodrigues batted well for her 30 runs in 22 balls with four fours, but her wicket fell at the worst possible time as DC found themselves in trouble at 66/5 in the 11th over as Amelia Kerr picked her second for the evening. Sarah Bryce didn’t stay at the crease for any length of time either as DC were 83/6 in 12.5 overs, needing another 67 runs in 49 balls with Marizanne Kapp being their last hope alongside Niki Prasad.
But ultimately, Kapp’s 40 and Prasad’s unbeaten 25 didn’t prove enough as DC lost the WPL 2025 final in the last over of their batting innings.
