Delhi Capitals became the first team to enter the WPL 2024 final with a dominant win over Gujarat Giants in the Women's Premier League (WPL) 2024 clash at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. While it was Gujarat, already out of a contention for a place in the Playoffs, who had won the toss and elected to bat first, they got off to a horror start, losing Beth Mooney in the first over itself.
Marizanne Kapp, Shikha Pandey and Minnu Mani picked up 2 wickets respectively for Delhi Capitals who are assured of a top finish at the WPL 2024 points table. While Kapp scalped 2 wickets for 17 runs in her four overs, Pandey gave away 23 runs in her full quota of overs. Mani might have only bowled 2 overs but was very much effective and only conceded 9 runs while getting those two wickets. Jess Jonassen was the othe wicket-taker for Delhi as Gujarat managed to post 126/9 in their 20 overs.
Shafali Verma's Breezy 71 Helps DC Storm To A Win
In response, led by Shafali Verma's quickfire half-century (71 off 37), Delhi chased down their target with 41 balls remaining. Delhi had already put their feet in the finals after they got off to a quickfire start with the scoreboard reading 19/0 after 2 overs. The 4th over did produce two wickets for GG with Meg Lanning and Alice Capsey getting out in the same over. However, post that it was all one-way traffic in favour of DC.
Eventually, Shafali did depart trying to go for the glory shot with 2 needed to win but ended up losing her wicket. Other than Shafali, it was Jemimah Rodrigues who scored did well with the bat, chipping in with a score of 38 off 28 balls and eventually scored the winning boundary for Capitals who will feature in the summit clash for the second year in a row. In the inaugural edition, DC had finished as runners-up after losing to MI in the final.