Shafali Verma and Jess Jonassen smashed half-centuries as Delhi Capitals handed Royal Challengers Bengaluru a fourth consecutive defeat with a commanding nine-wicket win.
Shafali Verma (44) and Jess Jonassen's (61 not out) fireworks underlined Delhi Capitals' complete domination as they crushed Gujarat Giants by six wickets.
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.
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.
West Indies' Chinelle Henry smashed a 23-ball 62, including eight sixes and two fours, to equal the record for the fastest fifty in the Women's Premier League.
Delhi Capitals dished out an all-round effort to comfortably beat former champions Mumbai Indians by nine wickets
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.
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 India pacer Pooja Vastrakar, who was grappling with an unspecified injury, was ruled out of the competition and has been replaced by slow left-arm orthodox bowler Parunika Sisodia, who was one of the main performers in India's title-winning campaign in the U-19 Women's T20 World Cup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.
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.
Australia pacer Josh Hazlewood claimed the Men's Test Player-of-the-Year award. It marked his first Australian Cricket Award, with Hazlewood taking 30 wickets at just 13.16 in Tests against the West Indies, New Zealand, and India.
Gujarat Giants, on the other hand, have been heavily reliant on Australian all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner, who has been their standout performer.
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.
Images from the WPL 2024 match between Delhi Capitals and Gujarat Giants at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday.
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.
The Capitals made a challenging 194 for five as Shafali Varma mustered a 31-ball 50 after they were asked to bat first.
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.
Jemimah expressed her joy at finally playing on their home ground, soaking in the enthusiastic atmosphere.
Meg Lanning and Jemimah Rodrigues smashed commanding fifties as Delhi Capitals thrashed Mumbai Indians by 29 runs.
IMAGES from the Women's Premier League match played in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Skipper Meg Lanning's second consecutive half-century and Jess Jonassen's splendid all-round show powered Delhi Capitals to an emphatic 42-run win over UP Warriorz.
The players' auction ahead of the 2024 edition of the Women's Premier League (WPL) will be held on December 9 in Mumbai, the BCCI announced on Friday.
Delhi Capitals secured direct qualification into the final of the WPL 2024 with a seven-wicket hammering of Gujarat Giants.
Images from the WPL 2024 match between Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday.
IMAGES from the WPL match between Delhi Capitals and UP Warriorz in New Delhi on Friday
Also released from the squad are Devika Vaidya, Simran Shaikh and Shivali Shinde.
Captain Harmanpreet Kaur's form with the bat will be in focus as the Indian Women's team looks to salvage pride in the third and final ODI in Mumbai on Tuesday.
The second edition of the Women's Premier League, beginning in Bengaluru on Friday with a high-profile match between defending champions Mumbai Indians and runners-up Delhi Capitals, will be optimistic about meeting its existential purpose of giving a wider platform to promising home-grown talents.
Australia were bowled out for 219 in their first innings -- their lowest total against India in Tests.
West Indies duo of Stafanie Taylor and Hayley Matthews have risen in ODI batting and all-rounder rankings respectively.
Indian batters were skittled out for 85 in 15 overs.
India secured its inaugural victory against Australia in women's Test cricket at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium
IMAGES from the Women's Premier League match played between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals in Navi Mumbai on Monday.
Australia beat India by nine runs to win the Commonwealth Games women's T20 cricket gold medal on Sunday but the real winner was the sport which delivered compelling competition and boosted its case to be included in the Olympics.
Meg Lanning's 30th birthday did not come with a present from her opponents as she was clean-bowled for a duck by a peach of a delivery from Salma, only the fourth time the Australian captain has failed to trouble the scorers in 98 ODIs.
In a thrilling final, Mumbai Indians handed Delhi Capitals a seven-wicket defeat to win the inaugural edition of the Women's Premier League.
Among the all-rounders, Deepti Sharma retained her fourth spot with 359 points in the list headed by Ellyse Perry of Australia with 460 points.
There was a huge uproar in the Commonwealth Games gold medal match after Australia cricketer Tahlia McGrath was allowed to play the T20 final against India on Sunday despite testing positive for COVID-19.
Team-wise list of players during WPL auction
Australia began their Women's T20 World Cup title defence on a resounding note
India's Deepti Sharma also moved up to no 6 while Poonam Yadav remained at eighth.
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