[In Pictures] Shafali Verma poses with her family after her fiery 71-run knock helps DC beat GG and reach finals of WPL 2024
Delhi Capitals (DC) opener Shafali Verma played a blazing knock of 71 (37) to power her side to a victory against Gujarat Giants (GG) in the final league game of WPL 2024 on Wednesday (March 13).
GG batted first in the contest after winning the toss and struggled their way to 126/9 in 20 overs after yet another dismal batting performance. Bharati Fulmali (42), Kathryn Bryce (28), and Phoebe Litchfield (21) got starts but failed to convert them into big scores for the Giants.
It was one-way traffic in the chase as Shafali Verma went on a carnage, smashing the ball to all corners of the park en route to a brisk half-century. During her 37-ball knock, she hit five sixes and seven fours before departing on the brink of an easy win when just two runs were needed.
Jemimah Rodrigues hit a four on the very next ball and finished the formalities as DC reached the final of WPL once again after finishing as the runners-up last year.
Shafali Verma took to her official X-handle after the match's conclusion and shared a couple of pictures. In them, she can seen posing along with her family, who visited the Arun Jaitley stadium to see the match live. She wrote:
"Tonight we achieved our first target of making the final. Amazed by what this team is capable of. One more to go. And also my whole family came toh picture daalna to banta hain na."
"Certainly nice to see her dominate tonight"- DC captain Meg Lanning on Shafali Verma
Speaking at the post-match presentation, DC skipper Meg Lanning expressed satisfaction with winning the match against GG clinically after a couple of close finishes. Reflecting on the victory, she said:
"The close finishes were a bit too stressful. Happy with the win tonight. When she (Shafali) plays like that she makes it look so easy. Certainly nice to see her dominate tonight. I think we've had some good patches in all our games, we haven't put them full game together. Tonight was pretty close to that. We know what our plans need to be, our executions keep getting better and better."
Lanning added:
"Increases the confidence for the finals, now we wait and see who we come up against. We've been excellent right from the start, even though we lost the first game we did a lot of things right. T20 is such a fickle game, going straight into a final is an advantage. It'll be a great game, the semi-final, will be eagerly watching, hopefully we can play our best game of the tournament on Sunday."
RCB and MI will lock horns in the Eliminator of WPL 2024 on Friday (March 15). The winner of this contest will face off against DC in the final on Sunday (March 17).