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We now draw curtains on our coverage of the inaugural 2024 Women's Premier League match. The premise has been set for what promises to be an immensely successful tournament - a last-ball thriller between the two finalists from last year! We'll be back tomorrow with more of the same as the Royal Challengers Bangalore take on the UP Warriorz on home soil. 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!
Just the kind of game that was needed to spark fresh excitement and ensure all the spotlight on the Women's Premier League! We had the best of the best on the park today - Lanning, Capsey, Jemimah, Yastika, Harmanpreet - all renowned figures in the sport had their say, but ultimately, a 29-year-old debutant from Wayanad had the final say! Sajeevan Sajana will certainly be a trending name in the databases of most sports' sides, and she sure has earned it!
Harmanpreet Kaur, Mumbai Indians captain and the Player Of The Match: Happy where we ended, we started from that momentum only. Happy with how we played, we played very positively. I would like to give credit to one of my batting coaches - Himanshu bhaiya. When I came back after the Australia series, I was not feeling well, but he made me practice hard and help me gain my confidence back. I didn't play the domestic tournament, I wanted to take a break and feel okay, mentally as well, sometimes you feel mentally fatigued having played too much cricket. That break helped me really well. Wicket looked really friendly while batting, I thought if we could take the game deep, we can win. Sajana gave us a solid start to the tournament, she's been smacking sixes throughout the practice sessions, she should what she has. We just wanted to look at the boundary options in the last over, good thing was that the spinner came. We were looking to finish the game in the first three balls itself, we had depth in the batting - because of Sajana I am standing here! Because of the conditions we wanted to chase, batting first or second doesn't matter, the conditions do.
Amelia Kerr: To go out there and hit the six of the first ball was unbelievable, first game for Mumbai, pretty awesome feeling for her and just happy to be on the right side of the game. I think, it was a nice wicket, thought it would get slower as the game progressed, with fast outfield and short boundary, we wanted to give ourselves the chase by taking it deep with wickets in hand. I don't think so, it's the same every time you play, sometimes it comes and sometimes it doesn't, spinners are key and last year as well. Before you play, in the meetings and stuff, we plan to different players, like here with short boundaries and you want to be prepared, going out there and executing it. We have some great cricketing brain in the team, that always helps and just back yourself when you go out there.
Meg Lanning (Delhi Capitals captain): It was reasonably good, sliding on, Mumbai Indians bowled really well early, hit a tough lengths and kept it tight, generally it's a good batting track but they bowled well up front which was the difference in the end. We thought it was above par, would've loved few more but still thought we could get the job done, we fought towards the end, but not to be today. I thought for most part, we executed pretty well, Bhatia as the left-hander complicated things and we can still get better. Reasonable effort, but we can better as the tournament progresses. Nearly snuck home there in the end, Capsey bowling the last over, I thought she did a great job, when we got Kaur out, I thought it we had the game in our hands, but for her to come out and hit the six first ball was brilliant. Big side to the right-hander, spinning the ball in and trying to get them to hit the bigger part of the ground, but couldn't quite get it done, full credit to Mumbai, fighting right till the end and being clinical.
Match summary:
Mumbai Indians win by 4 wickets off the last ball
Harmanpreet Kaur 55(34) | Natalie Sciver-Brunt 2/33 (4) Alice Capsey 75(53) | Alice Capsey 2/23 (4)
Cricket can be such a funny game. For 39 overs and five deliveries, it seemed like Alice Capsey was the player of the day - having top-scored for the Capitals earlier today, she just claimed the wicket of Harmanpreet just as the Indian skipper was set on getting the job done for her franchise side. Capsey looked to bowl a similar delivery the last ball - little did she know what was about to happen!
Nerves of steel from Sajeevan Sajana - widely regarded as one of the best female cricketers to come out of Kerala, Sajana was down the wicket, close to the pitch of the ball well in time, had a measured swing at it with her blade, didn't overhit it, her head didn't fall back, and Sajana went on to clear possibly the largest part of the boundary just when her team needed it the most.
And just like that, one of the integral purposes of the existence of the Women's Premier League flashed right in front of us - unearthing relatively unknown Indian players and providing them with moments like these. Sajeevan Sajana might just make a case for herself in terms of batting up the order - she sure showed the nerves required for the same! What a start we just had to the 2024 Women's Premier League!
Having lost Matthews two balls into the chase, the Mumbai Indians desperately needed someone from their top-order to grab hold of that role of accelerator and provide them with a solid start. Yastika Bhatia emerged as an unlikely candidate for the same - Natalie Sciver-Brunt happily played second fiddle as Yastika, with her immaculate timing, kept finding and clearing the ropes at will, and with 50 on the board after the end of the powerplay, the Mumbai Indians were firmly in control of proceedings.
A pinpoint yorker from Arundhati Reddy, and a failed attempt at a Natmeg saw the Capitals strike back right after the powerplay. There was the odd boundary almost every over after that as Yastika and Harmanpreet Kaur kept the Mumbai Indians in the hunt. Yastika was beginning to run out of momentum, though, she middled a pull but ended up holing out, and the game took a fresh turn.
The Mumbai Indians still had major reasons for optimism as Harmanpreet took over. She and Amelia Kerr kept MI in the hunt before Kerr departed in the last ball of the 18th. It was mostly down to the MI skipper after that - Harmanpreet brought the equation down to 12 off the last over, and once she found the boundary off the third delivery off Capsey, it seemed like MI's game to lose. What followed next was for everyone to watch!
Wow! Wowwwwww! A moment worth a thousand goosebumps! Capsey is on her knees, hiding her face behind her cap! The spotlight has just turned from her to a relatively new face - one that will certainly be a whole lot popular in the days to come! Sajeevan Sajana is the name - she's just smashed 6 off the last ball of a WPL match to win Mumbai Indians the game!!!
20
overs
173/6score
W
2
1
4
W
6
runs
Sajeevan Sajana*
6(1)
Amanjot Kaur
3(2)
Alice Capsey
2/23
19.6 Alice Capsey to Sajeevan Sajana, SIX! SAJEEVAN SAJANA, THE HERO OF MUMBAI INDIANS! Lanning can't believe it, so is Capsey, but what a shot that from Sajana to finish the game in style. Steps down the track for the length delivery, Sajana pummels it over wide long-on for seal the game. What a thriller we've just witnessed and that is just the first game of WPL! Phew!
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M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru
Sajeevan Sajana
*
Alice Capsey
Video
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