Earlier, after incessant rain interrupted the exciting contest, South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt won the toss and opted to field against the hosts India.
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.
14-year-old Mumbai opener Ira Jadhav became the first Indian to score a triple hundred in Under-19 cricket, when she made a 346 against Meghalaya in the Under-19 Women's One-Day Trophy
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.
Star batter Jemimah Rodrigues was on Thursday dropped from the 15-member Indian women's squad for the ICC ODI World Cup to be held in New Zealand from March 4 to April 3.
There was no money, sponsors didn't make a beeline and foreign tours were an ordeal, but there were women of steel who believed in the old adage that "the show must go on." And Nutan Gavaskar was the first among equals, one of the torchbearers of the women's cricket movement in India back then in 1973.
England beat India by eight wickets in rain-affected 2nd women''s ODI to level series 1-1
After being outplayed in the opener, Harmanpreet Kaur and her team roared back with a stunning 102-run victory, which was Australia's heaviest defeat in terms of runs. It was also India's first win over them in 12 matches.
India Women succumbed to their sixth consecutive defeat and eighth in a row at home
Images of the Women's T20 World Cup match between India and Pakistan played in Cape Town on Sunday
Teenager Jemimah Rodrigues struck an unbeaten 77 to help Supernovas beat Velocity by 12 runs and enter the final of the Women's T20 Challenge.
Smriti Mandhana's elegant maiden ton leads India to 97-run win over England in 1st T20I
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.
The Ireland women's team has never beaten India in the 12 ODIs they have played against them.
Harmanpreet, Shafali move up to tied 11th, Mandhana maintains 5th position
Rodrigues's 132 runs in the three-match series against New Zealand have lifted her to second position
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.
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.
Rodrigues, Kaur, Mandhana and Sharma were also a part of the now-defunct Kia Super League (KSL) in 2019, the ECB's domestic T20 tournament that made way for the Women's Hundred.
Virat Kohli, who has been in great form at the T20 World Cup, along with India women star players Jemimah Rodrigues and Deepti Sharma were nominated for the ICC Men's Player of the Month award for October.
A historic maiden women's T20 series victory over England already assured, India failed to end the series on a high, losing the inconsequential fifth and final match by five wickets in a last-ball thriller, in Birmingham, on Saturday.
This is India's 2nd win in as many games.
India vice-captain Mandhana to skip WBBL for second year in row
If the men of 1983 gave India a reason to dream, the women of 2025 could give it something rarer -- the courage to live that dream in full daylight, under an open sky that finally belongs to them, points out Prem Panicker.
Anushka Sharma, Sakshi Singh Dhoni cheered on their better halves from the stands along with other celebrities including IPL legend Chris Gayle.
India eye maiden women's T20I series win over England; hosts to miss injured skipper Brunt
India defeated Ireland by six wickets in the first women's ODI to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series in Rajkot on Friday.
'I think when it comes to Australia, you got to be the best or you can't play. That's the kind of team they are. My favourite team to play against is also Australia. It's more of a mind game than just skills (when you play against them)'
Also released from the squad are Devika Vaidya, Simran Shaikh and Shivali Shinde.
India registered a hard-fought six-wicket win over arch rivals Pakistan, keeping their semi-final hopes alive in the Women's T20 World Cup.
Lanning has led DC from the front, scoring 308 runs from eight innings, while South African all-rounder Marizanne Kapp and Australian left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen are the highest wicket-takers for the side with 11 scalps each.
India's batting faltered at the death as England held their nerves to pull off a narrow five-run win in a thrilling third women's T20 International on Friday.
India were served well by their top order batters with each of them hitting their stride to make significant contributions, even as the middle order players did not get going.
'Just a couple of Indian No 5s bumping into each other in Manchester'.
In the post-match press conference, Mithali Raj talked about the positives from two Tests that the team has played this year.
Pakistan were bundled out for a below-par 108 after opting to bat first. India then chased down the target with as many as 35 balls to spare.
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.
India along with New Zealand and Pakistan are in contention for the last remaining semi-final spot from Group A.
Smriti Mandhana hit a fluent half-century as India continued to hold the upper-hand against Australia, on Day 2 of the one-off Test.
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.
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