Mumbai Indians captain Harmanpreet Kaur was ecstatic after she and her team won the WPL 2023 title defeating Meg Lanning’s Delhi Capitals (DC) in the final at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday, March 26.
Delhi Capitals (DC) won the toss and chose to bat first and posted 131/9 with Lanning top-scoring with 35 and Shikha Pandey and Radha Yadav both making 27*. For MI, Issy Wong and Hayley Matthews took three wickets apiece.
In reply, despite losing Hayley Matthews for 13 and Yastika Bhatia for 7 runs, 60* from Player of the Final Nat Sciver-Brunt and 37 from Harmanpreet Kaur ensured that MI reached the target with 7 wickets in hand and 3 balls to spare.
Harmanpreet Kaur was joyous after winning the inaugural WPL edition and said: “(Right from start) we were talking about winning the moments. We were not looking for the trophy, we were looking to win all the moments. (We thought) if we win the moments, the trophy will come automatically. “It feels very good personally also. I was waiting for this moment for a long time when I could win something as a captain. It is also very important for women’s cricket.”
“Many times we were there but could not make it. But here the tournament was different, the teams were different. Every side is so balanced and did well in the tournament,” she added.
Harmanpreet Kaur was run out and she said it reminded her of her dismissal in the semi-final of the T20 World Cup earlier this year.
“Both the runouts were quite disappointing. I was confident in the last match (India versus Australia) because we had so many wickets in hand. I thought we would be able to do it. But the scenario was a lot different here, we had Nat in the middle and she was well settled. I knew who was going to bowl and how. We were quite positive to finish the game with one or two overs left. But when I got out we thought we had to go by the situation,” she said.
She said playing the Eliminator against Gujarat Giants helped her side gain momentum into the final.
“When we were doing well, the only thought in mind was to not get into the elimination round. But after losing two matches we were in search of momentum. It went in our favor that we got one more match to play before the final and everybody got into the rhythm. It worked well in our favor. If you play after a long gap, it is tough to get back into momentum,” Kaur explained.
WPL 2023: Cricket fraternity hails Mumbai Indians for clinching WPL title with 7-wicket win in final
She was highly impressed with DC’s Shikha Pandey and Radha Yadav adding 52 runs from just 24 balls for the unbroken 10th wicket, and asked them after the game to play similarly for the national team.
“I told Radha after the match that the way they were playing, I want to see the same approach when you come and play for India. She promised to come with the same approach. This was not a one-sided tournament. The next season will be more exciting. People will be waiting for this. Every team did really well,” she said.
On the other hand, DC coach Jonathan Batty grieved his side losing wickets in heaps against Mumbai Indians in the final.
“Losing three early wickets hurts you. The partnership between captain Meg (Lanning) and Marizanne (Kapp) got us back but then lost a flurry of wickets. That made it really hard but full credit (to the team) for going into the last over, (losing by) three balls left. We still had a chance of winning there at the end,” he said.
He also said that the franchise respected the TV umpire’s decision against Shafali Verma, who fell off a full toss from Issy Wong.
“We could not tell, the third umpire is in the best position to adjudicate on that and gave what they thought was a fair dismissal and we just lost a wicket, it was just unfortunate timing,” he said.
(PTI inputs)
