In the end, it turned out to be a walk in the park for Delhi Capitals. Meg Lanning's team completely outplayed the UP Warriorz with bat and ball to register a thumping nine-wicket win in match 4 of Women's Premier League 2024 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. (Full Coverage | Schedule And Points Table)
Delhi openers Shafali Verma (64 not out off 43 balls) and Lanning (51 off 43 balls) blazed away in response to the Warriorz's modest target of 120. The duo rattled off 119 runs in 86 balls before Lanning was dismissed at the doorstep of victory. Shafali's India teammate Jemimah Rodrigues then strode out and finished the job with a first-ball four.
Earlier, veteran pacer Marizanne Kapp emulated her compatriot Shabnim Ismail with a splendid seam-bowling performance, returning astonishing T20 figures of 4-1-5-3 to rock the UP Warriorz early and help limit their total to a below-par 119 for nine. While Kapp did the early damage, India left-arm spinner Radha Yadav was the wrecker-in-chief in the latter half, picking up four wickets for just 20 runs to decisively tilt the match in Delhi's favour.
Kapp bowled unchanged in a four-over spell and proved skipper Meg Lanning's decision to bowl first absolutely right. She started her destruction job getting rid of Vrinda Dinesh for a duck.
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Tahila McGrath was the next to go as Kapp cleaned her up with a beauty. The 34-year-old Kapp then picked up her biggest scalp of the night - Warriorz captain Alyssa Healy.
Healy, who scored 13 off 15 balls, tried to up the scoring rate, but perished in the process as Shafali Verma completed a fine running catch over her shoulder near the circle.
The Warriorz ended the Power Play at 21 for three and they needed a big effort to turn the flow of the game.
But wickets kept falling regularly and despite Shweta Sehrawat (45 runs off 42 balls) playing a good hand, the Warriorz just did not get going in the face of Radha's wicket-taking onslaught in the back end.
