Star opener Smriti Mandhana, wicketkeeper-batter Richa Ghosh and all-rounder Deepti Sharma were on Saturday named in the ICC Women's T20I Team of Year 2024.
Mumbai Indians head coach Charlotte Edwards said the early wickets of Delhi Capitals skipper Meg Lanning and opener Shafali Verma helped her team win the Women's Premier League final in Mumbai on Saturday.
UP Warriorz's 12 runs win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru knocked the defending champions out from the race to the play-offs on Saturday, confirming qualification for Delhi Capitals, Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Giants in the process.
While Mumbai Indians lay their hands on the inaugural WPL trophy, the season threw up a lot of standout performances.
Smriti Mandhana, Ellyse Perry, Shafali Verma, Meg Lanning and Harmanpreet Kaur were some of the big names retained by their respective franchises for the next edition of the Women's Premier League.
The inaugural edition's winner Mumbai Indians will bank on their core group of players while two-time finalists Delhi Capitals will expect fireworks from Shafali Verma when they face-off in the second game of the Women's Premier League here on Saturday. The finalists of the first WPL in 2023, both Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals made it to the knockouts in the second edition last year but lost to the eventual champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the eliminator and the final respectively. Those defeats were certainly not reflective of how well MI and DC had fared until the knockouts stage, with Harmanpreet Kaur's side finishing second in the points table with five wins in eight matches and Meg Lanning's team topping it with six wins in as many outings. The winners of WPL 2023, Mumbai Indians tend to lean on their core group of players both overseas and Indian and a similar approach can be expected this year, with only a few changes taking place in terms of squad composition. India pacer Pooja Vastrakar, who was grappling with an unspecified injury, was ruled out of the competition and has been replaced by slow left-arm orthodox bowler Parunika Sisodia, who was one of the main performers in India's title-winning campaign in the U-19 Women's T20 World Cup recently. Mumbai Indians have let go of England's Issy Wong, who took the first-ever WPL hat-trick in 2023, after the player lost form and the franchise found the leader of their attack in South Africa's Shabnim Ismail. Among domestic talents, another member of the U-19 T20 World Cup winning squad G Kamalini would be one to watch out for, having finished as the third highest scorer in the competition with 143 runs in seven matches. Apart from a strong leader in Harmanpreet, MI have strong figures from other international sides such as Nat Sciver-Brunt (England), Hayley Matthews (West Indies), Amelia Kerr (New Zealand), as well as South Africans Nadine de Klerk, Shabnim Ismail and Chloe Tryon. While Yastika Bhatia is MI's No 1 wicketkeeper-batter, other Indian players in Saika Ishaque, Sajana Sajeevan, uncapped Akshita Maheshwari and Amanjot Kaur will be expected to play their roles to perfection. On their part, Delhi Capitals will be keen to do one better after finishing as runner-up for two times in a row ever since the competition began. One of the most consistent teams in the competition, the Lanning-led Delhi have strong talent base across departments but the key will be to deliver in crucial matches. All eyes will be on the explosive Indian batter Shafali who has responded to her exclusion from the Indian side with runs in domestic cricket. She forms a lethal opening pair with Lanning at the top, while the likes of Australia's Annabel Sutherland, England's Alice Capsey and India's Jemimah Rodrigues form the core of their middle order. All-rounder Sutherland will hope to draw inspiration from her recent success of having struck 163 in the only Test of the women's Ashes followed by winning the highest individual honour in Australian cricket. While Delhi boasts of three wicketkeeper-batters in India's Taniyaa Bhatia, Nandini Kashyap and Scotland's Sarah Bryce, their bowling looks settled with Marizanne Kapp as the leader of the attack, backed by Australia's Jess Jonassen, India's Radha Yadav and Shikha Pandey as well as Titas Sadhu.
Shafali returns to T20 side for England tour, fit-again Yastika also comes back
Amanjot Kaur's superb all-round showing steered Mumbai Indians to a thrilling four-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
India's Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma have retained their third positions in the latest ICC Women's T20I batter and bowlers' rankings respectively, released on Tuesday.
Richa Ghosh (54) equalled the world record for the fastest fifty in women's T20Is (18 balls) after Smriti Mandhana's (77) fireworks as India registered 217 for 4 in the series-deciding third and final match against the West Indies here on Thursday.
MI will aim to seal their direct qualification to the final by finishing at the top when they face Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the final league match on Tuesday.
South Africa proved to be too strong for West Indies as they romped to a 10-wicket win to begin their campaign in the ICC Women's T20 World Cup on a rousing note in Dubai on Friday.
Jemimah Rodrigues struck a crucial fifty as India secured a comprehensive 20-run victory against West Indies in a warm-up game ahead of the Women's T20 World Cup in Dubai on Sunday.
With this, India bettered their highest-ever total against West Indies. Their previous best was 185/4 in November 2019 at Gros Islet.
Smriti Mandhana's tally of 747 runs was the highest among leading run-scorer in Women's ODIs in 2024.
India's stand-in skipper Smriti Mandhana was disappointed that her bowlers put up a below-par performance as Hayley Matthews put them to sword with a blazing 85 not out as West Indies levelled the three-match women's T20I series with a resounding nine-wicket victory in Navi Mumbai on Tuesday.
Mumbai Indians suffered a two-wicket defeat against Delhi Capitals in their opening match, which was marred by a few controversial run-out decisions.
Smriti Mandhana closed in on the top spot while occupying the second slot in both the ICC T20I and ODI batting rankings released
West Indies beat India by nine wickets in the second women's T20 International to level the three-match series 1-1 in Navi Mumbai on Tuesday.
UP Warriorz will be looking to bounce back and avenge their earlier defeat when they take on a resurgent Gujarat Giants in a crucial return-leg Women's Premier League fixture in Lucknow on Monday.
IMAGES from the WPL Eliminator played in New Delhi on Friday.
Deepti Sharma picked up a wicket giving away 23 runs and then smashed a run-a-ball 16, including the winning six off Hayley Matthews.
IMAGES from the Women's Premier League game in Bengaluru between Mumbai Indians and UP Warriorz on Wednesday
Uncapped Saika Ishaque's stellar showing with the ball and Hayley Matthews' superb all-round showing helped Mumbai Indians rout Delhi Capitals by eight wickets in the WPL 2023 match.
Harleen Deol underscored her growing maturity with an impressive maiden hundred
West Indies award 9 cricketers historic multi-year contracts across men's, women's teams
Mumbai Indians witnessed some standout performances in the WPL final against Delhi Capitals as they were crowned inaugural champions.
'We have got a team of a lot of stars. It has probably given the freedom at the top of the order'
The all-star team announced by the ICC features four players from Sri Lanka, three each from Pakistan and Afghanistan and one from the West Indies.
Deepti Sharma did the star turn with career-best figures of 6/31 before doing her bit with the bat as India completed a 3-0 whitewash of the West Indies
The White Ferns, runners-up in 2009 and 2010 editions, will meet South Africa in the final on Sunday
Harmanpreet Kaur's quickfire fifty and Nat Sciver-Brunt's fine all-round showing lifted Mumbai Indians to their second Women's Premier League title.
Also released from the squad are Devika Vaidya, Simran Shaikh and Shivali Shinde.
Placed in the platinum category, Harmanpreet was retained by the Renegades along with Hayley Matthews of the West Indies.
IMAGES from the Women's T20 Challenge game between Supernovas and Trailblazers in Pune on Monday.
IMAGES from the Women's Premier League match played between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals in Navi Mumbai on Monday.
Taking a dig at the controversial run-out decisions that played a big role in her team's last-ball, two-wicket defeat to Delhi Capitals, Mumbai Indians coach Charlotte Edwards said it was "really hard" to comprehend such calls that affect the eventual outcome of the match.
In a thrilling final, Mumbai Indians handed Delhi Capitals a seven-wicket defeat to win the inaugural edition of the Women's Premier League.
Jemimah Rodrigues roared back to form with a superb unbeaten 92 off 43 balls to power Northern Superchargers to a six-wicket victory over Welsh Fire in the fourth match of 'The Hundred', in Leeds, on Saturday.
India's Deepti Sharma also moved up to no 6 while Poonam Yadav remained at eighth.
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