Delhi Capitals’ (DC) win against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the final game of the Bengaluru leg meant that Meg Lanning & Co. have now won three on the trot and moved to the top of the WPL 2025 table, also confirming a spot in the playoffs. Following yet another convincing and 9-wicket win over Smriti Mandhana’s RCB, the key anchors of the win – Shafali Verma and Jess Jonassen along with their captain, Meg Lanning, shared their thoughts about the win and Delhi’s progress so far.
Lanning spoke about the importance of finishing the Bengaluru leg on a high and the energy levels in the team playing a crucial role. The captain shared, “We’re really happy with the performance over the last couple of days. It can be a little bit tricky coming back-to-back, but I thought we brought some great energy tonight, which was really important.”
“My back’s hurting,” laughed Shafali Verma, who finally got her first half-century of the WPL 2025 after multiple scores in the 40s. “Today I got that 50, which wasn’t coming for a while, the six I hit when I was on 44, that was really nice, I liked that a lot.”
Jess Jonassen has been key for the Capitals with the ball, but she has made the most of opportunities with the bat, coming in early after the loss of Lanning to score an aggressive 61* to see Delhi home with Verma. She spoke about the importance of being able to help the team, whether it be with the bat or ball.
“I just love having the opportunity to try and contribute to my team’s success. It wasn’t to be with the ball tonight but (yeah) pretty proud to be able to get the opportunity with the bat,” Jonassen was pleased to contribute with the bat as well.
Chasing 151, the Capitals were in a spot of bother when Renuka Singh Thakur sent Lanning home in the third over but Verma and Jonassen, promoted above Jemimah Rodrigues, saw the Capitals home with a 146-run partnership.
“I think it was a very good partnership, (I think) because of that partnership we won the game. We were focusing on getting singles and doubles because we would get the boundaries on the loose balls, but we were trying to build a good partnership, and I think we managed to be really happy with that,” said Verma.
“It’s something we’ve done well over the three years, we’ve not relied on one or two players, we’ve got some great depth, and I think it’s a key strength of ours,” said Meg Lanning, talking about how Delhi’s key strength is them functioning as a team unit rather than being dependent on individuals.
Be it Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues or Shikha Pandey or the likes of Niki Prasad and Minnu Mani, Delhi Capitals have seen their Indian players step up whenever the team needs them, and captain Meg Lanning spoke about the importance of having a strong bunch of domestic talents rather than being overly dependent on their foreign players.
“I think that’s one of the strengths of our team again, is the domestic (Indian) talent is contributing to our wins, and we are not just relying on the international players which I think is really important,” Lanning highlighted how the Indian players have been key as well to the Capitals success.
Jonassen and Verma both spoke about the team structure and environment and how that helps the team to perform well on the field.
“I think it goes right back to the first season, the auction strategy and the scouting strategy. We’ve got world class players, not only international players but our domestic talent as well,” Jonassen spoke about the background staff and their role as well.
“We’ve probably fielded a team most times where every single player has played international cricket, (I think) it’s a really valuable asset to have as a side and we really gel well together and everybody knows their role and we want each other to succeed,” added Jonassen.
“Whoever is bowling, we know where we need to stand and what the field setup needs to be, our team meetings are very simple and we know about each other and I think if you get to know each other better, things get better,” Verma added, talking about the importance of gelling and knowing each other better off the field as well.
Delhi’s captain signed off by highlighting the importance of winning and the momentum one gets from that. She shared that getting to the Playoffs was one of their goals which they have achieved and now they want to rectify the small details as they aim to pick up their first WPL trophy.
“You want to keep winning as much as you can, it’s a habit and you just want to give yourself a chance, so we wanted to come into this tournament and give ourselves the chances and qualify for the Finals which we have done now, and now it’s about fine tuning few things and playing our best when we get to that point.”
(Quotes sourced from video posted by WPLT20 on Instagram)
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