Following Mumbai Indians’ rout of Gujarat Giants in the lopsided Eliminator at the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2025, Mumbai locked in a second Final appearance at the WPL, having won previously in 2023. It will also be a rematch of the 2023 final as Delhi Capitals is on the other side with Harmanpreet Kaur’s girls looking to emulate their 2023 heroics.
Following their 47-run win over Gujarat Giants in the Eliminator, Mumbai’s veteran bowler Shabnim Ismail and their young off break bowler Sanskriti Gupta had a small chat about their win over the Giants, their season so far and the final ahead of them.
Mumbai’s South African seamer, Shabnim Ismail is having a career-best season at the WPL, sitting with 8 wickets from nine games and spoke about how the team staff helps the team recover in a short span of time with back-to-back games and how she was looking forward to the final.
“I mean the recovery has been key for us, obviously we had back-to-back games, and we’ve got a great group at the management, who manage our group and bodies well. The previous game we lost so we knew we had to come out here and put up a performance. I’m happy that it was a complete team performance, I’m just happy we got over the line and obviously, tomorrow’s another rest day and then we go again. Really chuffed that we got over the line here and are looking forward to the finals,” said Ismail.
The young rookie, Sanskriti Gupta, who has become a regular for the Mumbai team also shared her thoughts on playing in the WPL for the first time and Mumbai’s form going into the final.
“First of all, it’s my first time in the WPL so I was very excited about it, and I want the trophy this year. Our team performance in the last three games has been really good and hopefully it continues in the next game also.”
Ismail spoke about sending back the dangerous Beth Mooney early on and how much damage the Australian opener can do.
“Obviously we know she’s a world class player and we knew we needed to get her wicket early because you’ve seen, through the competition, that if she gets going it’s very difficult to get her out. (So) I knew I had to be the one to obviously try my best to try and get her out and we had plans as well. When we go to our team meetings, we knew what we needed to do and I was happy to come out and secure it,” said Ismail.
Gupta didn’t roll her arm over against the Giants but that didn’t mean that she was out of the game and didn’t contribute. Gupta’s sharp fielding at point made sure the in-form Harleen Deol was also sent home early on, with a clean run out that sent the Indian batter home, being well-short of her crease.
“Jhulan-di (Jhulan Goswami) knows that I’m a youngster and wants me to perform and when I do well, she is very happy that there is a good player coming through the ranks. (About the run-out) I was ready because we knew that if we want to win this game, we need to give it our full effort,” shared Gupta.
After a sloppy fielding performance against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in their last league game, Mumbai Indians lifted their socks on the field and Ismail highlighted the importance of their fielding performance.
“We pride ourselves in our fielding a lot, we’ve got Bolty (Nicole Bolton) our fielding coach, she wasn’t really happy with our previous game, where we dropped some catches and our fielding wasn’t as great but I mean we came out here today and we got three run-outs and it was a complete team performance, from the batting to the fielding to the bowling, so I’m hoping we can do that in the finals as well,” said Ismail.
In a crunch match, a must-win for both teams, Mumbai were put into bat first and it was the trio of Hayley Matthews, Nat Sciver-Brunt and Harmanpreet Kaur, who set up a massive 214 run target for the Giants as Matthews and Sciver-Brunt shared a record 133-run partnership before Kaur’s 36 from 12 balls made sure the Indians got past 200. Sanskriti Gupta spoke about the three star batters in their lineup and how important they are to the team’s success.
“Everyone knows about Hayley Matthews and Nat Sciver-Brunt and Harmanpreet Kaur as well, if they get going then the team opposite us is in bad shape. We have death over batters but if these guys get going, they take the game to another level. So, we just try to keep them in the field as much as possible,” says Gupta.
Signing off, both Ismail and Gupta spoke about the importance of putting up a strong performance in the final and also highlighted the firepower in Delhi’s arsenal which should make it an exciting encounter.
“I’m happy that it’s Mumbai against Delhi in the Final, I feel they are the two best teams that can go head-to-head and I hope that (obviously) we’ll come over the line but DC’s got some world-class players, they’ve got the likes of Marizanne Kapp, Meg Lanning, Shafali Verma, Jess Jonassen so they got all the players but we have it to match them and I’m hoping that we come out here in the finals and we can beat them,” shared Ismail.
“If I get the chance, I have to do well, have to help the team do well, and we need to win, that’s all, nothing else,” said Sanskriti Gupta.
“As a team, we’ve got lots of good memories here (Brabourne), we knew what the field was gonna be like as well, so it gives us a positive going into the Finals. The previous game (against RCB) we lost here, it was actually the first time we lost at this ground, but we can bat strong, and we know what to expect and how to go about our game so I’m hoping now that we have gotten to the final, we can do the same exact thing,” signed off a positive Ismail.
(Quotes sourced from video posted by WPLT20 on Instagram)
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