Delhi Capitals lost the plot against Royal Challengers Bangalore spinners after a flying start, crumbling like a pack of cards to be bowled out for 113 in the Women’s Premier League final on Sunday. DC were cruising at 64 for no loss in 43 balls before they committed harakiri, losing 10 wickets for just 49 runs in front of a 28,781 capacity crowd, who looked divided in their loyalties. Australia’s left-arm spinner Sophie Molineux (3/20) started DC’s downfall, picking up three wickets in the eighth over. Thereafter, the hosts never really recovered, losing wickets at regular intervals, courtesy some loose shots and off-spinner Shreyanka Patil‘s (4/12) exploits in the middle and late overs hastened their end.
Opting to bat, DC skipper Meg Lanning (23 off 23) and Shafali Verma (44 off 27) looked in a different world as they upped the tempo in a linear fashion.
Lanning, the second highest run-getter in the tournament, played the second fiddle as Shafali went hammer and tongs after a slow start in the first 11 balls.
Shafali was particularly destructive straight down the ground as she slammed her first three sixes in that region. She opened up her arms in the final delivery of the second over when she went down on her knee to dispatch Molineux over long on for the first six of the innings.
Shafali Verma
Jemimah Rodrigues
Alice CapseyThat was one incredible 3⃣-wicket over from Sophie Molineux
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The right-arm fast bowler Renuka Singh was taken to task in the fourth over, which yielded 19 runs.
Shafali started the onslaught clobbering the bowler over her head for a six, which eventually inspired Lanning.
Lanning then struck two boundaries off the last two deliveries of the same over to match her partner.
Ellyse Perry also bore the brunt of Shafali’s wrath as the Australian all-rounder was hit over for a maximum and then a boundary as DC reached 52 in five overs.
The DC openers continued their attacking game and hit Sophie Devine for a boundary each in the next over to take the home team forward.
But RCB managed to put brakes on DC when Molineux scalped three wickets in the eighth over, dismissing Shafali, Jemmimah Rodrigues and Alice Capsey, the last two wickets even put her in the line for a hat-trick which eventually didn’t happen.
After reaching 72 for 3 at the halfway mark, DC’s mainstay Lanning, who was trying to resurrect the innings, departed, trapped leg before Shreyanka but not after she wasted a review.
Thereafter, the home team kept losing wickets in search of unnecessary big shots to stumble to 81 for six.
It was mayhem for DC as they lost seven wickets for mere 23 runs in that period.
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