Shafali Verma of Delhi Capitals and Jess Jonassen of Delhi Capitals celebrating win during match 14 of the Women’s Premier League 2025 (WPL) between The Royal Challengers Bangalore and the The Delhi Capitals held at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, India on the 1st March 2025. (Sportzpics)
Smriti Mandhana seemed to consider tossing the coin up with her left hand – something Harmanpreet Kaur does from time to time for India – because her luck hasn’t been good. She fumbled, then tossed it with her right hand anyway. And when it went against her she walked away with a wry smile, as Delhi Capitals skipper Meg Lanning did a little celebratory fist pump, giving Mandhana a pat on the shoulder.
In her long, decorated stint as Australia captain, Lanning was often asked what she would have done if she lost the toss. Her response almost invariably, without hesitation, was a version of: “it doesn’t matter”. But in the Women’s Premier League, it has mattered a whole lot. Only one team so far had won batting first.
That was the case once more on Saturday as Lanning’s DC became the first team to confirm their place in the knockouts with a thumping, back-to-back, 9-wicket win to ensure Royal Challengers Bengaluru finished their home leg with four defeats from four matches. Asked to bat first, RCB managed to put just 147/5 that DC managed to chase down with 27 balls to spare, riding on an unbroken 146-run partnership off just 77 balls between Shafali Verma (80* off 43) and Jess Jonassen (61* off 38).
The advantage of winning the toss aside, the challenge for DC was to start well because they were back in action in less than 24 hours after another convincing 9-wicket win the previous night. And they did just that as Shikha Pandey struck in the second over, having Mandhana caught at slip with a brilliant delivery that angled away. Ellyse Perry continued to be the lone warrior for RCB as she scored yet another half century (60* off 47 balls) but it didn’t help the home side that she barely had the strike in the backend of the innings. Raghvi Bisht, while doing a decent job early on stabilising the batting order, couldn’t shift through the gears fast enough and by the time RCB’s hitters came in, there were too few deliveries remaining to do any damage. DC’s bowlers were solid once more, with debutant Sree Charani impressing with 2/28.
In the run-chase, Lanning couldn’t get going this time, out for 2 off 12 balls thanks to a stunning catch by Perry. The narrative around Shafali’s batting in WPL has been how having Lanning at the other end often helps her but this time around, she took off despite losing her guiding factor early. With the move to promote Jonassen to No 3 clicking for the second time, the left-right combo quickly deflated any hope RCB might have had. Shafali has had a decent season so far without that one big score, so that was another box ticked for DC. The swashbuckling opener showed her array of big strokes once more, a six into the stands over deep midwicket eliciting a “wow” from Jonassen at the non-striker’s end.
In this form, DC look the real favourites once more with all the four other teams searching for consistency, as the league moves to Lucknow. Mandhana ended the night with a sorry to the home fans who had turned up in huge numbers for the second season running. The defending champions now have a mini break to regroup before two huge matches that will decide their fate.
Vinayakk Mohanarangan is Senior Assistant Editor and is based in New Delhi. … Read More
