The Delhi Capitals on Sunday fielded five overseas players during a Women’s Premier League match against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
Tara Norris, a left-arm pacer from the USA, was included in the playing eleven alongside four other overseas players in captain Meg Lanning, Marizanne Kapp, Alice Capsey and Jess Jonassen.
While only four overseas players are allowed in the final eleven in the men’s Indian Premier League (IPL), the women’s tournament has an additional rule which states: “A team will be allowed to have a maximum of five overseas players, four of whom may come from Full Member nations and the fifth from an Associate Member nation.”
Interestingly, no other team picked an Associate player during the auction, which means only DC will enjoy the advantage of fielding five foreigners during a match throughout WPL 2023 provided the side goes ahead with Norris in the eleven. And going by how she performed on day one, she isn’t going to lose her place any time soon. After she removed the experienced Ellyse Perry, Norris went on to inflict further damage, pocketing the prized scalps of Disha Kasat, Richa Ghosh and Kanika Ahuja.
Royal Challengers Bangalore, having won the toss, opted to field on day two of the league. However, Smriti Mandhana’s side could do little to stop the flow of runs as the openers Meg Lanning and Shafali Verma registered a mammoth 162-run partnership. Eventually, DC went on to set a target of 224 for its opponent.