TACTICAL PREVIEW
Follow UsThe T20 season in India is all set to kick off as Mumbai Indians take (MI) on Delhi Capitals (DC) in the first match of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2024 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. The two sides also met in the final last season, with the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side clinching it.
With both teams having made some needed reinforcements in the WPL 2024 auction, it will be interesting to see what dimension they add to the team. DC splashed INR 2 crore on Annabel Sutherland, who arguably is the best all-rounder in the world and will be their key player, alongside their other Australian core, including Lanning, Jess Jonassen and Laura Harris.
On the other hand, MI have splashed INR 1.2 crore on experienced South Africa pacer Shabnim Ismail. Still, at the same time, they have also invested quite a bit in young Indian players, with all-rounder S Sajana, left-arm wrist spinner Amandeep Kaur, an ambidextrous bower in Fatima Jaffer and Keerthana Balakrishnan, who is an up and coming leg-spinner.
Safe to say, neither team had massive holes to fill at the auction, which indicates how well they had built their teams in the inaugural season.
Things to watch out for
Kapp’s versatility
DC had as many as five players who scored over 150 runs in the previous edition. Marizanne Kapp hit 177 runs at 44.25 (SR 121.2) and is an integral part of the batting line-up. Last season, she batted at three, four and five, fitting in everywhere like that last piece of a jigsaw puzzle. She had the most impact at three, striking at 189.7, compared to four and five, where she scored at a strike rate of 102.9 and 104.9, respectively.
Moreover, she also picked up nine wickets in WPL 2023, including a five-wicket haul. She has been able to make the best of the conditions early on, with eight of her nine wickets coming when her team has bowled first.
The Lanning-Shafali threat
Meg Lanning and Shafali Verma put on 479 runs (SR 185) in the first season, which is head and shoulders above the rest of the teams. No other partnership went past 327. While Lanning finished as the leading run-getter in the tournament with 345 runs (SR 139.11), Shafali was more of the aggressor and slammed 252 runs at a strike-rate of 185.29.
The trick for the opposition is to get them out in the first four overs. Whenever they have lasted beyond that, DC have won all their matches.
Can Hayley Matthews continue where she left off?
Hayley Matthews had a memorable WPL 2023, where she walked away with a Player of the Tournament award for her impressive all-round performance that saw her score 271 runs at a strike-rate of 126.04 and also finished as the leading wicket-taker with 16 scalps at an economy rate of a shade under six. However, she was not at her best in the recent Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL), where she scored at 114.34 and picked up 14 wickets.
Given that the conditions will be quite different in India, MI will hope Matthews gets back to her best with both bat and ball.
Ground Details
The M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, has not hosted a Women’s T20 since 2016. In the eight matches played here, the spinners have picked up nearly 58% of the wickets at an economy rate of 6.4. The average first-inning score for batting first here in this period is 133. However, in the men's T20s, the Chinnaswamy has seen high-scoring fixtures over the last few years, where 180-200 has been breached more often than not.
We can expect something similar in this game and the Bengaluru leg of the tournament.
Tactical insights
Amelia Kerr has been in top form in T20s this year. She recently led Wellington to the title in Super Smash with her all-round performance. She hit 437 at a strike rate of 126, and with the ball, she scalped 20 wickets at an economy rate of 4.47.
DC have a team comprising right-handed batters, and Kerr has phenomenal figures against them with 15 wickets coming at an economy rate of 4.1, average of 8.4 and strike rate of 12.3. Lanning’s team will have to be wary of her.
Annabel Sutherland will be crucial in this game, given she has had the wood over MI captain Harmanpreet. Since the start of 2023, the Aussie pacer has got the better of Harmenpreet twice in 29 deliveries.
However, Harmanpreet has been dismissed five times by Sutherland in T20s, averaging 12 at a strike rate of 101.7.
Probable XI
Delhi Capitals: Meg Lanning (c), Shafali Verma, Marizanne Kapp, Jemimah Rodrigues, Annabel Sutherland, Jess Jonassen, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Radha Yadav, Shikha Pandey, Minnu Mani, Titas Sadhu
Mumbai Indians: Hayley Matthews, Yastika Bhatia, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Amelia Kerr, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Pooja Vastrakar, Amanjot Kaur, Jintamani Kalita, Humairaa Kazi/S. Sajana, Saika Ishaque
