We arrived at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru with a motive to start off our campaign against Mumbai Indians on a high. Having played a good game for most of the time, Delhi Capitals weren't able to close it off, losing the game on the last ball by four wickets.
We were put into bat after losing the toss and the start wasn’t ideal with Shafali departing in the third over. However, Alice Capsey and skipper Meg Lanning started to build a steady partnership. Despite not having accelerated much inside the powerplay, the duo went about getting boundaries under their belt even as the field opened up.
Meg Lanning hit the first six of the tournament along with three fours. Though she couldn’t go beyond her knock of 31 runs, as a slower ball from Nat Sciver-Brunt got the better of her in the 11th over.
However, she had already combined in a 64-run stand with Capsey, who was going strong at the other end. The wicket of the skipper didn’t keep the scoring down as Capsey kept the foot on the accelerator while Jemimah Rodrigues joined her as well.
Capsey hit Hayley Matthews for two sixes and a four in the 12th over and reached her maiden fifty in the WPL. Interestingly, her previous best was also against the Mumbai Indians. She kept going after her milestone and got a few more handy boundaries. She was eventually dismissed for 75 runs off 53 balls, which included nine smashing fours.
Her wicket brought an end to the stand which was 74 runs. Jemimah though had a steady start to her knock, having played 11 balls for the first 10 runs. However, her next 13 balls saw her score 32 runs with some really well executed shots. There were deft touches and smart playing around with the field, which allowed to keep the pressure on the opposition.
She was dismissed for 42 runs off 24 balls with five fours and two sixes in the 19th over. Marizanne Kapp kept the ante though with her three fours in the last over of the innings as we ended at 171/5.
With the ball it was a great start as Kapp picked up the wicket of Hayley Matthews with the second ball and also delivered a maiden first over. Yastika Bhatia managed to keep the opposition moving towards the target along with Sciver-Brunt, who had joined her in the middle.
The England all-rounder was then dismissed by a searing yorker from Arundhati Reddy. The all-rounder had a good day with the ball after that too as she notched up the wicket of Yastika Bhatia, who had gone past a fifty. However, that further meant Harmanpreet Kaur and Amelia Kerr kept Mumbai Indians in the hunt for the target.
Kerr was finally dismissed by Shikha Pandey who bowled a superb cross seam delivery which landed right in the blockhole to get rid of the all-rounder. That wicket along with some tight bowling saw Mumbai Indians needing 12 off the last over.
Capsey was tasked with the tough job. However, the star with the bat, got the wicket of Pooja Vastrakar off the first ball to make it more interesting. When the equation came down to five off the last two balls, Harmanpreet was dismissed. The last ball didn’t turn out the way we would have wanted as Sajeevan Sajana making her debut in the WPL smashed a six.
Despite the loss, there were many key moments of the game which the team will look back at with positivity. Our next fixture is against the UP Warriorz on February 26.
