‘The Greatest franchise ever’- Fans overjoyed as Mumbai are crowned champions of Women’s T20 League 2023
Mumbai crushed Delhi by 7 wickets in the final of the Women’s T20 League 2023 only to take the trophy home on Sunday. At Brabourne Stadium inside a packed house, Harmanpreet Kaur and Co. exhibited a stellar bowling performance, restricting Delhi to just 131 runs at the end of the first innings.
Delhi’s destructive opener, Shafali Verma departed early as she sliced one to Melia Kerr, who made no mistake. Wong’s another full toss led to in-form Alice Capsey’s (0) departure as Delhi had lost two wickets for just 12 runs on the board. J Rodrigues (9) made a positive start with two fours but, once again, a poor ball from Wong’s led to Rodrigues getting caught at covers. Delhi were reeling at 35 for 3 inside the power play.
M Kapp then joined hands with Lanning and the duo forged a 38-run partnership for the fourth wicket. But just when it looked like a partnership was building, Melia Kerr sent Kapp (18 off 21) back to the hut. Lanning, however, was playing well at the other and all the hopes were pinned at her. But the game changing moment arrived when the Delhi captain got run-out in the 12th over. Lanning played a handy knock of 35 off 29 balls and looked all set to play a big knock.
However, once she fell, wickets fell in quick succession. 9 wickets were fell for just 79 runs on the board. To the delight of Delhi fans, Shikha Pandey (27) and Radha Yadav (27) added valuable runs for the last wicket and took the team to a respectable score. However, it didn’t prove enough as Mumbai chased it down with 3 balls left in the game.
Both the openers of Mumbai departed early but Harmanpreet Kaur and Sciver-Brunt took the game away with a match-winning partnership of 72 runs for the third wicket. The Mumbai skipper got run-out after scoring 37 runs but her partner stayed right till the end and guided the team. Sciver played a match-winning unbeaten knock of 60 runs in 55 balls and the fans can’t keep calm in expressing their excitement over Mumbai winning the inaugural season.
Here’s a look at some of the reactions:
https://twitter.com/anubhav__tweets/status/1640041321086824451
https://twitter.com/niharika_raina/status/1640040392094810113
Some hiccups in the second half but MI was clearly class above the rest. #WPLFinal
— Rohit Yadav (@cricrohit) March 26, 2023
https://twitter.com/sri_ashutosh08/status/1640040896271110144
Mumbai Indians the FIRST champions of #WPL. 8th trophy in franchise cricket for #MI. Brabourne’s gone wild! What a tournament, what a night – all credit to Delhi for not giving in without a fight! #WPL2023final pic.twitter.com/ICN3wCNv6R
— Anant Tyagi (@anantyagi_) March 26, 2023
https://twitter.com/SPORTYVISHAL/status/1640039602374467584
https://twitter.com/AvengerReturns/status/1640039781857107968
https://twitter.com/chirag_kudu/status/1640039546565058561
https://twitter.com/Head9_/status/1640039534548357121
Indian captain drafted Australian captain
— Shahwaiz (@Leoshawiii) March 26, 2023
https://twitter.com/dtsaae/status/1640039460493725696
jersey number 7 winning trophy
we have seen before— RK (@MahiGOAT07) March 26, 2023
https://twitter.com/RoFiedAsim/status/1640039642056790018
greatest t20 franchise on plant earth ❤️❤️
— Kawal7818 (@kawal7818) March 26, 2023
MUMBAI INDIANS – CHAMPIONS OF FIRST EVER WPL.
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) March 26, 2023