NL Corresspondent
Uncapped Saika Ishaque's stellar showing with the ball and Hayley Matthews' superb all-round showing helped Mumbai Indians rout Delhi Capitals by eight wickets in the WPL 2023 match in Navi Mumbai on Thursday.
Ishaque (3/13), Isabelle Wong (3/10) and Hayley Matthews (3/19) sent Delhi crashing for a lowly 105 in 18 overs. In reply, Mumbai chased down the total easily with five overs to spare. Opener Yastika Bhatia top-scored for Mumbai with 41 from 32 balls, putting on 65 runs for the opening wicket with Matthews, who made 32 from 31 balls. Nat Sciver-Brunt (23 from 19 balls) and Harmanpreet Kaur (11 from 8 balls) took Mumbai across the line in the 15th over.
Delhi Capitals, who had amassed totals in excess of 200 in both their matches, suffered a collective failure with the bat in a high pressure contest between the top two teams in the league.
Despite captain Meg Lanning's fighting 43, Delhi were unable to stage a recovery with the bat.
Ishaque was once again the star for Mumbai as the left-arm spinner accounted for Lanning, Shafali Verma (2) and Jemimah Rodrigues (25) to take her wicket tally to nine in three matches, the most in the tournament.
The only bright spot for Delhi was the 50-run stand for the fourth wicket between Lanning and Rodrigues, but once their resistance was broken, the Capitals slipped further as they lost four wickets for three runs in the space of nine balls. After being reduced to 32/3 in seven overs, Lanning and Rodrigues tried to revive the Delhi innings.
It all went downhill for Delhi once their partnership was ended by Ishaque, who cleaned up Rodrigues in the 13th over.
The left-arm spinner then dealt a body blow to Delhi three balls later by removing Lanning Gayley Matthews also got into the act to dismiss the dangerous Jess Jonassen (2) and Minnu Mani (0) in the 14th over and trapped Tara Norris for the final wicket of the innings.
