Champion mentality

Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur’s panache powered Mumbai Indians to their second Women’s Premier League title as Delhi Capitals choked for the third time in succession losing by 8 runs in what turned out to be an exciting finale here on Saturday.

Harmanpreet saved her best for the big day as her scintillating 44-ball 66 was instrumental in taking MI to a fighting 149/7 despite underwhelming effort from the other batters.

While it seemed that MI were at least 15 runs short of what was a par-score on a good batting track, Delhi Capitals’ batters put undue pressure on themselves to finish at 141/9 despite a late surge from Marizanne Kapp and teenager Niki Prasad.

When Nat Sciver-Brunt, MI’s most impactful player through the tournament, removed DC skipper Meg Lanning with an off-cutter, and Shafali Verma, who has not shown any signs of improvement as far as her technique is concerned, was caught plumb in-front by Shabnim Ismail, DC’s chances fell drastically.

Jemimah Rodrigues (30 off 21 balls) tried for a while and so did Marizanne Kapp (40 off 26 balls) but it didn’t prove to be enough in the end.

Having batted like a champion, Harmanpreet’s years of experience of being an international skipper of repute proved to be handy as she marshalled her resources admirably, rotating the bowlers, not allowing the batters to get settled.

Whether it was Sciver-Brunt (3/30), Ismail (1/15), Amelia Kerr (2/25 in 4 overs) or Indian youngster Saika Ishaque (1/33 in 4 overs), MI got wickets just when DC seemed ready for a pushback.

Earlier, Delhi Capitals did well enough to restrict Mumbai Indians to below 150. Harmanpreet effortlessly shifted gears from the onset.

She took on the opposition’s most successful bowler of the tournament, Jess Jonassen. At the other end, tournament’s highest run-getter Sciver-Brunt (30 off 28 balls) completed her personal tally of 500 runs in this edition but for a change played second fiddle, allowing Harmanpreet to enthral the near-capacity Brabourne Stadium crowd that cheered her every stroke.

Brief scores: Mumbai Indians: 149/7 (Harmanpreet 66, Sciver-Brunt 30; Jonassen 2/26, Charani 2/43); Delhi Capitals: 141/9 (Kapp 40, Rodrigues 30; Sciver-Brunt 3/30).