We witnessed an action-packed contest where the defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) spoiled the Gujarat Giants’ homecoming debut at the Kotambi stadium in Vadodara as the visitors sealed a convincing 6-wicket victory with 9 balls to spare to start things off in the 3rd edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) on 14th February 2025.
The finalists of the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2023 Mumbai Indians and two-time finalists Delhi Capitals leveled up the excitement in the 2nd game of the 3rd edition of the tournament at the Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara.
Sanskriti Gupta, Sarah Bryce and Niki Prasad brace themselves up for the WPL challenge
The 3rd edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) continues to open the world of opportunities for youngsters, to walk hand in hand with some of the superstars in the women’s game and also put an exhibition of skills in their armoury. If the tournament opener had as many as 9 debutants, five from Gujarat Giants (GG) and 4 from Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), the 2nd game of the season had 3 debutants in Niki Prasad, Sarah Bryce, (Delhi Capitals) and Sanskriti Gupta (Mumbai Indians), in Vadodara.
Nat Sciver-Brunt and Harmanpreet Kaur lead Mumbai to a competitive total
Only skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (42 off 22 balls) struck at almost 200 and Nat Sciver-Brunt (80* off 59 balls) managed to get to terms with the conditions on offer in Vadodara, as the inaugural champions Mumbai Indians folded for 164 with five balls to spare after the Capitals skipper Meg Lanning won the toss and opted to bowl first in Vadodara. The veteran English all-rounder returned to form with an impressive unbeaten half-century after having a below-par outing for her side in the recently concluded 8th edition of the multi-format Women’s Ashes in Australia.
A couple of runouts didn’t help their case either for Mumbai Indians. The duo of Sciver-Brunt and Kaur were the heartbeat of their batting line-up accounting for a significant 74% of the team’s total. Wicket-keeper batter Yastika Bhatia (11 off 9 balls) was the only other batter to enter the double digits with the bat for her side.
Annabel Sutherland (3.1-0-34-3) stood out with the ball, however, Shikha Pandey’s exceptional spell (4-0-14-2), played an instrumental role in removing both the openers Yastika and Hayley to set things up for Sutherland to capitalise. Minnu Mani (4-0-23-1) played her part with the ball for Delhi Capitals.
Shafali Verma and debutants Niki Prasad – Sarah Bryce guide Capitals to the win
Chasing a target of 165, Shafali Verma (43 off 18 balls) with a sky-rocketing strike rate of 238.88 gave the Capitals a box-office start forming a 60-run opening stand alongside skipper Meg Lanning inside the powerplay. However, Hayley Matthews ended Shafali Verma’s carnage on the penultimate ball of the field restrictions, providing some respite for the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side.
The Capitals lost wickets in clusters finding themselves in a precarious position at 76/4 in the 9th over of the innings, losing their next three wickets for just 16 runs. Skipper Meg Lanning looked confident (15 off 19 balls) during her stay at the crease. A couple of substantial partnerships 33 runs for the 5th wicket between Niki Prasad and Alice Capsey (16 off 18 balls) followed by another crucial 31-run stand for the 6th wicket between the WPL debutants wicket-keeper batter Sarah Bryce (21 off 10 balls) and Niki Prasad in the context of the game, kept them alive in the run chase.
A moment of adrenaline rush for India’s under-19 World Cup-winning skipper Niki Prasad looking to finish things off in style, with Capitals needing a-run-a-ball 2, perished on the penultimate ball of the run chase to add another twist to the game and there was more drama on the final delivery of the game as Arundhati Reddy had to almost make a full-length dive to take the Delhi Capitals over the line in a last-ball, nail-biting, edge-of-the-seat humdinger to seal the game by 2 wickets in hand.
Niki Prasad was awarded the Player of the Match for her calm and composed contribution with the bat (35 off 33 balls) to guide her side over the line in a tense encounter.
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