indians vs capitals

 Dominant Delhi Capitals dismantle MI to rise to the top spot

Delhi Capitals climbed to the top of the WPL 2025 standings, swapping places with Mumbai Indians, who they crushed by nine wickets at 

the M.  Stadium Chinnaswamy in Bengaluru. The victory, the Capitals' second over the inaugural champions in this season, was set up by an excellent bowling performance led by the experienced Jess Jonassen's sixth three-fer in WPL history.

Before Meg Lanning and Shafali's blistering 85-run opening partnership of Meg Lanning (60* off 49) and Shafali (43 off 28) added a touch of inevitability to the final result, Mumbai Indians were limited to a paltry 123 on a familiarly good batting surface. The Capitals won with 33 balls to spare, giving a significant fillip to their Net Run Rate.

Coming into this top-of-the-table match, the Mumbai Indians were unbeaten at the venue this season, but they had to write success in a different way after being put in the game.

 When Yastika Bhatia won the first ball from Marizanne Kapp and hit it for four, the match got off to the best possible start. Without being overly risk-averse, Bhatia and Hayley Matthews helped Mumbai get off to a strong start, with Matthews establishing up to four boundaries.

All of that changed in the final PowerPlay over when Shikha Pandey took her first wicket, knocking out Bhatia, who had only 11 runs out of 35, which turned out to be the team's best total for the first wicket. Mumbai suffered two blows when Matthews was run out by Annabel Sutherland in the very next over.

Harmanpreet Kaur, partnered by Nat Sciver-Brunt, was able to restart Mumbai's innings after opening with a streaky edged four off Titas Sadhu. After that, they scored 18 runs in the 10th over that Sadhu bowled, indicating that they were ready to step it up. When Jonassen resumed the attack at that point, the game completely changed.

Harmanpreet was first dismissed by Jonassen with an arm ball, but the Mumbai Indians captain missed her attempt at a legside nudge. There was no reprieve from DRS.  She bowled a flighted delivery in her third over that dipped on Sciver-Brunt, who chipped it back to the bowler for a straightforward catch. Minnu Mani played an excellent spell,

 dismissing S Sajana and Amelia Kerr in a single over, the latter falling to a sensational catch in the deep from Sutherland. The Mumbai Indians were unable to recover from that double setback, and as a result, they were defeated. Mumbai lost 5 for 23 to finish with 123/9.

The total was never going to be enough to test Delhi but the openers produced to wipe out any trace of an asterisk that might have remained at the half-way mark.  Lanning got going with a brace of boundaries in the first over off Shabnim Ismail. 

 Verma then tore into Sciver-Brunt in the third over, pulling an emphatic six before adding a brace of fours in a 16-run over.  By the end of the PowerPlay, Delhi had 57 on the board with the Lanning-Verma pair registering its 11th 50-run stand (the most).

Verma jumped ahead in the stands and hit two more sixes in a Kerr over before losing to Amanjot Kaur in the tenth over. From thereon, it was a stroll in the park for the Capitals and their captain ensured it remained so by completing her eighth half-century in the tournament and remaining unbeaten while taking the team over the line.

Brief scores: Mumbai Indians lost by nine wickets to Delhi Capitals, 124/1 in 14.3 overs (Meg Lanning 60*, Shafali Verma 43; Amanjot Kaur 1-12) in 20 overs (Harmanpreet Kaur 22; Jess Jonassen 3-25, Minnu Mani 3-17).