Their men’s team is the most successful IPL team of all time with 5 titles and now the
Mumbai Indians women’s team has
won the inaugural Women’s Premier League title.Incidentally, the Delhi Capitals IPL team has never won the IPL title and they were denied the title in the first WPL final as well. MI beat DC by 7 wickets to become the inaugural champions under the captaincy of Harmanpreet Kaur.
As the curtain came down on the very first edition of the WPL, which saw participation from 5 teams and ran for xxx days, the tournament, just like the IPL, also became a good barometer to gauge which players are a cut above the rest in T20 cricket, from among the countries whose players participated in the tournament.
TimesofIndia.com here takes a look at the best performers of the inaugural edition of the WPL:
Most Runs (Top 5)– Meg Lanning (DC) – 345 runs
– Nat Sciver-Brunt (MI) – 332 runs
– Tahlia McGrath (UPW) – 302 runs
– Harmanpreet Kaur (MI) – 281 runs
– Hayley Matthews (MI) – 271 runs
Most Wickets (Top 5)
– Hayley Matthews (MI) – 16
– Sophie Ecclestone (UPW) – 16
– Issy Wong (MI) – 15
– Amelia Kerr (MI) – 15
– Saika Ishaque (MI) – 15
Most Fifty plus scores (Top 3)
– Tahlia McGrath (UPW) – 4
– Harmanpreet Kaur (MI) – 3
– Nat Sciver-Brunt (MI) – 3
Most Sixes (Top 5)
– Sophie Devine (RCB) – 13
– Shafali Verma (DC) – 13
– Alice Capsey (DC) – 10
– Hayley Matthews (MI) – 10
– GM Harris (UPW) – 9
Highest Strike Rates (Top 5)
– Sophie Devine (RCB) – 275
– Heather Knight (RCB) – 272.72
– Shafali Verma (DC) – 271.42
– Sophia Dunkley (GG) – 232.14
– Richa Ghosh (RCB) – 231.25
5-wicket Hauls
– Tara G Norris (DC) – 1
– Kimberly Garth (GG) – 1
– Marizanne Kapp (DC) – 1
1/19
Mumbai Indians beat Delhi Capitals to clinch inaugural WPL title
Show Captions
<p>Nat Sciver-Brunt hit an unbeaten half-century to steer Mumbai Indians to a seven-wicket victory over Delhi Capitals in the inaugural Women’s Premier League final on Sunday.</p>
<p>Issy Wong and Hayley Matthews set up the victory as they claimed three wickets each after Delhi elected to bat first at the Brabourne Stadium. </p>
<p>Delhi crumbled under pressure despite a late blitz from Shikha Pandey (27*) and Radha Yadav (27*) lifted the team from 79/9 to bat out the innings. </p>
<p>Wong rattled the opposition top-order and then Matthews demolished the Delhi batting as she returned figures of 3/5. </p>
<p>Delhi looked down and out before number eight Shikha put on an unbeaten 52-run 10th-wicket stand off just 24 balls with Radha to take the total past 100. </p>
<p>Wong struck twice in her first over with the wickets of Shafali Verma (11) and Alice Capsey (0) to put Delhi on the back foot.</p>
<p>Skipper Meg Lanning and Jemimah Rodrigues hit back with four boundaries but Wong struck again with the wicket of Rodrigues as Delhi fell to 35/3.</p>
<p>The in-form Lanning consolidated her top spot in the tournament batting charts with 345 runs but her run out hurt Delhi badly. </p>
<p>Delhi kept losing wickets and collapsed from 73/3 with Amelia Kerr returning with 2/18 as Mumbai restricted Delhi to 131/9.</p>
<p>Mumbai overhauled the target with three balls to spare after a key 72-run third-wicket stand between Sciver-Brunt (60*) and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (37).</p>
<p>Mumbai lost their openers inside four overs but Kaur and Sciver-Brunt soaked up the pressure.</p>
<p>The stand was broken with Kaur’s run out but there was no stopping Sciver-Brunt. </p>
<p>Sciver-Brunt raised her third half-century of the tournament to anchor the team home with Amelia Kerr (14*) in an unbeaten stand of 39. </p>
<p>Sciver-Brunt hit the winning boundary as the Mumbai dugout erupted in celebrations as the women added to the record five IPL crowns of the men’s team.</p>
<p>”It (the win) means everything. At the start of the competition I didn’t know what to expect,” player of the match Sciver-Brunt said. </p>
<p>”Coming together with a special group of girls with the Mumbai Indians, really special to be standing here.” </p>
<p>Kaur said: “It feels like a dream, for everyone here. So many people were asking when will the WPL come and that day is here, and we are so happy and proud.” </p>
<p>”We would have loved to win tonight, but full credit to Mumbai Indians they have been excellent throughout the tournament, so they deserved their win,” said Lanning. </p>