Shafali Verma credited skipper Meg Lanning for calming her down and help her top-score in Delhi Capitals opening win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in the WPL.
Shafali, 17, is the second youngest woman to hit a fifty on Test debut in the first innings and the youngest ever to hit a half-century in both innings of a Test match.
Star India batter Smriti Mandhana on Saturday admitted that her maiden T20 International hundred in the first match against England "took a long time coming" but was relieved to achieve the feat as she "had a habit of getting out".
The Capitals made a challenging 194 for five as Shafali Varma mustered a 31-ball 50 after they were asked to bat first.
Delhi Capitals dished out an all-round effort to comfortably beat former champions Mumbai Indians by nine wickets
Following their 60-run win over Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Capitals skipper Meg Lanning lauded Shafali Verma and Tara Norris' stellar performances in their WPL opener.
Gujarat Giants, on the other hand, have been heavily reliant on Australian all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner, who has been their standout performer.
Powered by the all-round brilliance of Nat Sciver-Brunt and Hayley Matthews, Mumbai Indians head into the Women's Premier League final as favorites to claim their second title, while Delhi Capitals hope to break their title jinx in what promises to be a thrilling showdown in Mumbai on Saturday.
India beat Bangladesh by 59 runs in Women's Asia Cup
India's star batter Shafali Verma revealed that she enjoys watching England's Liam Livingstone bat but her role model is the legendary Sachin Tendulkar.
Images from the Women's Premier League 2023 match between Delhi Capitals and Gujarat Giants played at the D Y Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Saturday.
Invited to bat, Shafali, a regular in the India senior team, and Sehrawat, stitched a 111-run stand for the first wicket.
Batting sensation Shafali Verma will chase history when she leads India against England in the first-ever ICC Under-19 Women's T20 World Cup final on Sunday.
Shafali Verma (44) and Jess Jonassen's (61 not out) fireworks underlined Delhi Capitals' complete domination as they crushed Gujarat Giants by six wickets.
India women's team captain Harmanpreet Kaur, her deputy Smriti Mandhana and all-rounder Deepti Sharma were retained in Grade A, the highest category of central contracts offered by BCCI.
The opener has played a couple of Tests, six ODIs and 28 T20 Internationals since making her debut
Delhi Capitals produced a splendid bowling effort before their batters, led by Niki Prasad, survived some anxious moments to register a narrow two-wicket win over Mumbai Indians in a last-ball thriller in the Women's Premier League
Set a target of 151 after opting to field, Velocity completed the chase with 10 balls to spare.
Shafali wants to make the visit to South Africa even more memorable with another silverware.
Delhi Capitals vice-captain Jemimah Rodrigues believes the long break between the last league match and the Women's Premier League final has revitalized the team and will work to their advantage in the title clash. The Capitals have qualified for their third straight WPL final after Mumbai Indians were defeated by Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the last league match at Mumbai on March 11.
'We have got lots of energy within the group and as I said before we are really excited about the opportunity that we have given ourselves to go out there and play our best game.'
Needing 16 off two overs, Kashvee Gautam struck Shikha Pandey for a six off the last ball to bring down the equation to seven runs in the last over.
Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru will be determined to give their home fans a parting victory when they take on a fatigued Delhi Capitals in Bengaluru on Saturday, before the Women's Premier League moves to Lucknow for its third leg.
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.
Apart from Shafali's knock, Sixers skipper Ellyse Perry hit 27 runs off 33 balls as they reached 129 for five in 19.3 overs.
She achieved the feat in a T20I against West Indies at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium.
Rohit Sharma's poor run of form has not allowed Mumbai Indians to set the tone in the Indian Premier League ((IPL) so far, believes former Indian women's captain Anjum Chopra.
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.
Smriti Mandhana smashed a blistering 47-ball 81 to power reigning champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru to a resounding eight-wicket victory over Delhi Capitals
Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur lauded Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh after their match-winning knock
Shefali joins the trio of T20 skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (Sydney Thunder), opener Smriti Mandhana (Brisbane Heat) and all-rounder Veda Krishnamurthy (Hobart Hurricanes), which has featured in the WBBL.
The Grade B has an annual retainer fee of Rs 30 lakh and veterans such as Jhulan Goswami, Mithali Raj and Deepti Sharma are among 10 players in this bracket.
India's limited overs vice-captain Smriti Mandhana slammed a 39-ball 45 to power defending champions Sydney Thunder to a six-wicket win over Sydney Sixers in the Women's Big Bash league.
India opener Shafali admitted that Sri Lanka are no longer only dependent on their skipper Chamarai Athapaththu.
16-year-old Shafali Verma announced her emergence on the global stage by becoming the second highest run getter in the ongoing tournament. She has so far scored 161 runs, hitting 18 fours and nine sixes in four matches, at an astounding strike rate of 161.
Shafali was presented with India Women's ODI cap number 131 from captain Mithali Raj
Five years ago, a starry-eyed Shafali Verma wrestled through a vociferous crowd at the nondescript Lahli ground in Haryana to get a glimpse of her idol Sachin Tendulkar, the moment that inspired the then 10-year-old to take up the game.
Images from the Women's T20 World Cup match between India and Sri Lanka in Dubai on Wednesday.
Delhi Capitals will be aiming to claim the top spot, while UP Warriorz will be desperate to register their first victory of the season when the two sides face off in the Women's Premier League in Bengaluru on Saturday.
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.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances