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We now come to the end of our coverage of the league stage in this year's Women's Premier League. Just two more games remain this season - the Mumbai Indians and the Royal Challengers Bangalore contest for that second finals' spot on Friday as the Delhi Capitals camp eagerly await. Join us right here on Sportskeeda for our coverage of the same, and of course, a whole lot more! This is Rajarshi Das, signing off on behalf of Pradeep Somasekhar. Good night - see you tomorrow!
The Capitals end the league stage as the best team amongst the five, booking a place in the final for themselves. They came into this game on the back of a couple of nail-biters - none of the same tonight, the sailing was rather smooth! More questions than answers for the Gujarat Giants as a forgettable campaign for them comes to an end. There's every possibility of an overhaul next season - the absence of an Indian marquee player sure did affect their composition this time. Completely contrasting fortunes for the two sides on show tonight!
Shafali Verma is the Player Of The Match! Here's what she has to say: I've thought of hitting straighter in the innings I played before as well. I respected the good deliveries and pinched singles off them, so that the innings was built right and we won. I made my mind up on if the ball was in my range, I'll go for it against Gardner. I backed my strengths, and was able to produce a score like this tonight. I realized I was in good touch today, wanted to be out there till the end and finish it, couldn't do so and I am disappointed with it. To remain stable was vital for me to score those runs. I try to contribute as much with my fielding as possible, try and save 10-12 runs on the field. The lesser we get to defend the better.
Meg Lanning, Delhi Capitals captain: It was nice, wasn't close. Those close finishes were a bit too stressful. Happy with the win tonight. When she (Shafali) plays like that she makes it look so easy. Hits a very long ball. 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. 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. Either of those sides will be a great contest - both those sides have match-winners and have played some really good cricket over the tournament. It'll be nice for us to sit back and watch that.
Shikha Pandey: We're all ecstatic, the kind of work was put in with the balanced we had was amazing. We're really happy with our bases covered, horses for courses. We shared a great camaraderie, the medium pacers we always keep talking and keep sticking to the plans. The players in our squad is so experienced, Titas has played for India and she's just 19, we learn from the youngsters, they bounce out the ideas and it's good to learn from them. Really happy to see Shafali batting like that, the kind of form she's in, no total is defendable.
Beth Mooney (Gujarat Giants captain): We probably just been outplayed in all facets of the game, didn't get off to a good start, let them get too many in the bowling innings. We showed some signs in the tournament, but we didn't pull off one full game this season. We saw Mannat Kashyap coming into side, she bowled well, Laura has been amazing at the top and certainly some signs moving forward. Ismail is a great player, she's a good kid, has a great attitude towards the game, tries harder and I'm sure she's got the bright future, hopefully I don't have to face much. Disappointment, might have to look at other captain, from my point of view, we've done well. We've got the right set of people, might have to look at different things and come back well next season.
Match summary:
Delhi Capitals win by 7 wickets with 41 balls to spare
The Capitals make light work of the target at hand! They weren't really going to be under much pressure going into the run-chase, and a swift start from Meg Lanning and Shafali Verma further eased the nerves wihtin their camp! While Lanning fell looking for an improbable run, Shafali kept at it, proceeding to produce an enthralling exhibition of clean hitting against spin as the overs rolled by.
She had Jemimah Rodrigues for company after the Giants struck twice in quick succession - Capsey holed out to mid off off Kanwar four balls after Lanning's run out, and the duo of Rodrigues and Shafali Verma ensured no further hiccups. Rodrigues was content on playing second fiddle as Shafali took on the bowling, nudging it around for singles, but she joined in the fun soon after.
Some of the Giants' tactics were questionable, to say the least. While Kanwar and Kashyap produced fairly decent returns early on, Mooney decided to employ Ashleigh Gardner against a well-set Shafali Verma. With the ball turning in, Shafali proceeded to make merry, clubbing the ball many-a-mile over long on and cow corner on several occasions. She had a half-century of her own, and was looking good to hit the winning runs but perished with two to go.
Jemimah got the job done the following over, and now the Capitals will wait to find out who they play on Sunday right here at the Arun Jaitley stadium.
There it is! The Delhi Capitals have a berth in the final - again! They were in command of proceedings all along today, and will now have a three-day break before the ultimate clash!
13.1 Mannat Kashyap to Jemimah Rodrigues, FOUR! DELHI CAPITALS ANNIHILATE GUJARAT GIANTS! What an absolutely thumping win for Delhi as they finish to of the tables and will play the WPL finals. Short outside the off-stump, Rodrigues waits and cuts it very hard, in the gap as well at covers, races away to the ropes.