WPL 2024 MI vs DC Live Score: Alice Capsey scores fluent fifty

Hayley Matthews comes in for another over and Alice Capsey smacks her for a massive six. It goes really high over long on and fielders were trying to get under it, but it lands outside the boundary rope. OH she’s not done. Another SIX comes off her bat, a little wide of mid on. She’s got some space and smacks it over the stands. Chinnaswamy loves its sixes. Keep them coming, Alice! Under pressure with some topsy turvy form internationally and with Annabel Sutherland breathing down her neck in this lineup, she gets to her fifty with a boundary between point and backward point. 19 runs plucked out of this Hayley Matthews over. 

Nat Sciver-Brunt returns. After a few singles conceded, she gets the big wicket of skipper Meg Lanning with a fuller delivery outside off. Lanning goes after it but hasn’t middled it and edges it to Sajana at backward point. BREAKTHROUGH. Where does the DC innings go from here? Jemimah Rodrigues is the new batter for Delhi. 

WICKET Meg Lanning c Sajana b Nat Sciver-Brunt 32 (27b 3x4 1x6) SR: 118.51

Hayley Matthews comes in for her first over of the day. Capsey runs a single. Matthews switches to bowling around the wicket to Meg Lanning and has beaten her to her knees. Lanning looks to sweep but misses. There’s an appeal for LBW. Harman places faith in her bowler and goes for DRS. Ball tracking saves Lanning as the ball’s trajectory is missing the stumps. Lanning lives to face another ball. Matthews follows it up with a flatter between off and middle line. The ball inside edges its way to short third, but Lanning runs away to safety. Capsey looks to sweep also ends up losing track of the ball, but no harm done. What a wonky over this. Delhi will exhale given they’ve suffered no casualties. 

After just six runs on the board in the first three overs, this has been some recovery. Delhi Capitals will need this pair to keep going. 

Kerr returns. Meg Lanning welcomes her with the first six of the season. She has thumped this over mid on. A few deliveries later, Capsey dances down the track to send the ball to the fence for four. Kerr manages to beat her when Capsey gets on a knee to hit it the other way, exposing her stumps in the process. Kerr will look at that and try and see how she can attack her in that area. 

Keerthana B comes into the attack. Meg Lanning has been playing it safe all along but she’s freeing her arms against the leg spinner. She first gets the ball through to the extra cover boundary after a misfield from Hayley Matthews which allows the ball through. She then plays the next ball late for FOUR through backward point. Keerthana has conceded 13 runs in her first ever over in WPL. Mumbai won’t mind that. It’s all about giving these youngsters a chance to shake the nerves off. Fifty up for Delhi Capitals. 

Amelia Kerr into the attack. And DC is looking like the DC we know in this over. Capsey has taken on the responsibility of accelerating and welcomes Kerr with a boundary between extra cover and mid off. Lanning also wants a piece of the action as she steps down the track and sends the ball to the fence. Kerr appeals for Lanning’s wicket off the last ball of the over. She seems to be hit on the pads but the umpire dismisses it. She’s stepped down the track and read the length all wrong. 

After being restricted to its lowest PowerPlay score, good recovery for Delhi.

Saika Ishaque comes on for her second over. She will close out the PowerPlay, an abysmal one for the Capitals in terms of scoring rate. Saika is also stingy as Delhi squeezes four singles from here. 

Shabnim Ismail gets her third straight over. A few dots including a short rising delivery from Shabnim to keep Capsey in her crease. The DC run rate is at 3.67 and asking for life support! Shabnim is absolutely unplayable today as even Capsey goes on to keep knocking the ball to fielders. Oh, but hold on. Capsey will not be denied as she uses the width Shabnim gives her despite going short to get the ball through to backward point for FOUR. She follows it up with two runs down third man after the ball is stopped by the rope. 

Nat Sciver Brunt comes into the attack now. She beats Capsey off the first ball but her compatriot knows NSB’s angles better than most. She’s been smacked for back to back boundaries - the first few for the Delhi innings tonight. The first is lodged over mid on, while the other goes through square leg. Harmanpreet Kaur and Sciver-Brunt are fervently changing field positions. NSB follows it with what looks like a wide ball. Harman believes Capsey’s got bat on it as a faint edge can be heard. MI reviews the wide. There’s a spike when the ball passes the pad and rescinds the wide. But cricket is a funny funny game as Nat Sciver Brunt follows it up with a wide angling away to the offside. She can do nothing but smile. She follows it up with a bouncer going straight above Capsey’s head. The over ends with the crowd’s hearts in their mouth after a very lucky escape in a run out situation for Alice Capsey. Lanning didn’t look like she wanted that run, but is Vastrakar was on target. Capsey would be making the long walk back to the pavilion. 

Pressure was building and Shabnim Ismail tears through her stumps. What a start with the Mumbai Indians for the South African. Shafali’s painful stay at the crease comes to a rather premature end. Alice Capsey joins Meg Lanning and gets off the mark right away. I can’t get over that Shafali dismissal. The middle stump went flat as Ismail bowled to the stumps with the ball coming slightly in. Her eyes were visibly not on the ball. Lanning employs the late cut to counter Shabnim as she negotiates the feisty pacer safely. Delhi has to amp up the scoring rate at some point though, especially against this MI batting order. Shabnim Ismail has dismissed Capsey three times in international cricket and so she’s taking no risks. She’s focusing on strike rotation at the moment. A dangerous ball to end the over as the ball goes into Meg Lanning. She’s got bat on it or all that pad contact would have devastated DC.

WICKET Shafali Verma b Ismail 1 (8b 0x4 0x6) SR: 12.5

Spin right away as Harmanpreet looks to Saika Ishaque and there’s an appeal on the very first ball. There’s an appeal for caught behind after it looks like Lanning has knicked one to the keeper. It was a fuller ball and she had to grind the bat to make contact. MI won’t review to look for an edge after the umpire shows no interest. The MI bowlers are keeping DC’s openers very quiet. Shafali has a ring of fielders on the off side and is getting frustrated. Shafali is finding the fielder with every shot. Delhi has just three runs on the board in 12 balls at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. 

Ismail steams in as she opens the bowling for Mumbai Indians. Lanning plays it late and defends. Ismail sends in a shorter ball going upwards. Lanning reaches for it but can only the swish the bat. No harm. A fuller ball follows. Lanning manages a run with an inside edge with a misfield by Pooja Vastrakar too. Shafali sees the over through without much of a risk. She’s hitting the ball clean but finding the fielders with every hit of the ball. Good start here by Ismail as she gives away just the solitary run. 

Meg Lanning vs Shabnim Ismail is a contest I am looking forward to. Lanning recently retired from international cricket and has spent some time piling on the runs in the domestic scene back home. She was the orange cap holder last season. Can she replicate her heroics individually and that thrilling partnership with Shafali which gave the team more than 450 runs? 

One can only wait and watch. 

Who do you think was unfortunate to miss out today?

Meg Lanning (c), Shafali Verma, Alice Capsey, Jemimah Rodrigues, Marizanne Kapp, Annabel Sutherland, Arundhati Reddy, Minnu Mani, Taniya Bhatia, Radha Yadav, Shikha Pandey

Annabel Sutherland comes in right off the bat for DC. Jess Jonassen misses out which is the big news coming from this announcement. Meg backed Arundathi Reddy a lot last season and that continues as she finds a place in this season too. No Titas Sadhu just yet. 

Harmanpreet Kaur, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Yastika Bhatia, Hayley Matthews,. Amelia Kerr, Amanjot Kaur, S Sajana, Pooja Vastrakar, Shabnim Ismail, Keerthana Balakrishnan, Saika Ishaque

No Issy Wong. Debut for Shabnim Ismail. Keerthana B brings in a solid spin option and S Sajana also gets a look in. Nice balance of Indian and overseas talent in this team. 

Usually, when Meg Lanning loses a toss, she would say it doesn’t matter but Natalie Germanos observes that Meg isn’t happy about losing this toss. This is a ground that loves teams batting second and the numbers favour the chase, as does dew. It’s a tough ask of Delhi to first put up a massive score and then defend it. But we know this bunch is up for a challenge

What do you know? Harmanpreet Kaur wins the toss and will bowl first. She announces that three debutants will feature in this game for the side. She says dew was a big factor in opting to bowl first. 

Lanning says she is fielding four seamers and two spinners. 

The captains are congregating in the middle. Match referee GS Lakshmi is with them. These playing combinations are going to give their managements a massive headache. Only four foreign players can be fielded. How will the DC and MI playing XIs look?

With a power-packed side and a good balance between Indian and international players, season one runner-up Delhi Capitals will fancy its chances to go the distance this time.

Delhi Capitals WPL 2024 team analysis: Squad depth, players to watch out, fixtures

With a power-packed side and a good balance between Indian and international players, season one runner-up Delhi Capitals will fancy its chances to go the distance this time.

Under an able and experienced leader in Harmanpreet Kaur, Mumbai Indians continues to field an assembly line of all-rounders as it hopes to retain its WPL crown.

Mumbai Indians WPL 2024 team analysis: Squad depth, players to watch out, fixtures

Under an able and experienced leader in Harmanpreet Kaur, Mumbai Indians continues to field an assembly line of all-rounders as it hopes to retain its WPL crown.

The second iteration of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) is set for an electric opening in Bengaluru on Friday, with defending champion Mumbai Indians going up against runner-up Delhi Capitals. Expect nothing less than a battle for the Capitals, who would want to ascertain their superiority against the only side that troubled them time and again. While for the defending champion, it will all be about continuing what it left the last season. 

- Five teams will face off against each other in the nearly month-long tournament

- Mumbai Indians is the defending champion

- Captains of the teams: 

Mumbai Indians: Harmanpreet Kaur

Delhi Capitals: Meg Lanning

UP Warriorz: Alyssa Healy

Gujarat Giants: Beth Mooney

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Smriti Mandhana

Welcome to the live coverage of the Women’s Premier League. India’s premiere franchise tournament for women returns for its second chapter with an array of stars and two brand new venues. We begin the season in Bengaluru after which action will move to New Delhi. 

You can follow the live telecast of the Women’s Premier League on Sports 18 and the Jio Cinema App.