Delhi Capitals continued their winning campaign in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) T20 cricket tournament by defeating UP Warriors by 42 runs here on Tuesday, with the help of Captain Meg Lanning’s attractive half-century and Jess Johnson’s all-round game. Lanning scored 70 off 42 balls which included 10 fours and three sixes. Apart from him, Johnson (42 not out off 20 balls, three fours, three sixes) and Jemima Rodrigues (34 not out off 22 balls, four fours) shared an unbroken 67-run partnership off 34 balls to take the team’s score to 211 for four.
Johnson then showed off his left-arm spin bowling and took three wickets for 43 runs, helping the Warriors to 169 for five despite Tahelia McGrath’s unbeaten 90 off 50 balls studded with 11 fours and four sixes. Could only make it. McGrath also scored the highest score of the WPL. Warriors captain Alyssa Healy (24 off 17 balls, five fours) was bound to take an aggressive approach in front of a big target but Johnson forced her to give a simple catch at point in the fourth over and then Kiran Navagire (two ) was also sent to the pavilion.
Marijan Kapp’s next over was a maiden in which she caught opener Shweta Sehrawat behind the wicket. This took the Warriors from 29 for three to 31 for no loss. McGrath and Deepti Sharma added 40 runs in 35 balls for the fourth wicket. Radha Yadav dived forward at long-on to take a fine catch to end Deepti’s (12 off 20 balls) struggling innings. Despite McGrath’s meaningful efforts, the Warriors’ team reached the 100-run mark in the 14th over in front of Delhi’s tight bowling.
McGrath and Devika Vaidya (23 off 21 balls) added 49 runs for the fifth wicket but they could not score at the required pace. Johnson broke the partnership by dismissing Devika in his second spell. McGrath hit Kapp for a four and completed his half-century off 36 balls. He hit four fours in this over. He reduced the margin of defeat by hitting two sixes and as many fours in the last two overs. Earlier, Lanning took the initiative to score runs in the Powerplay for Delhi. His aggressive batting helped Delhi score 62 runs in the first six overs.
Lanning hit two sixes off Shabnim Ismail, who was included in the team in place of Grace Harris, who won the Warriors in the last match, and welcomed left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gaikwad for four fours in the final over of the powerplay. Shafali Verma (17 runs off 14 balls), however, could not find color and returned to the pavilion after being caught by McGrath at backward square leg immediately after the powerplay. Kiran Navagire took this catch by diving forward. Lanning and Shefali added 67 runs for the first wicket. Lanning completed her half-century in 32 balls with a six off veteran spinner Sophie Ecclestone.
After this, the game was stopped for some time due to rain. When Ecclestone started the game, Marijan Kapp (16 runs off 12 balls) was caught by Deepti Sharma. Lanning hit two consecutive fours in the same over but Gaikwad shook his middle stump on an arm ball in the next over. Ismail put an end to the aggressive nature of Ellis Capsy (21 off 10 balls) who hit two sixes in his brief innings. Johnson and Rodrigues performed well in the death overs. With the efforts of these two, Delhi managed to score 58 runs in the last four overs. He scored 19 runs in the 19th over of McGrath. Johnson hit a six in the last over of Deepti’s innings to reach the score of 200 runs.
