Mumbai Indians head coach Charlotte Edwards hailed their Women’s Premier League title triumph as one of the greatest moments in the history of cricket. MIW defeated Delhi Capitals Women by seven wickets at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai on Sunday.
MIW was able to restrict DCW to a below-par score of 131-9 after Meg Lanning won the toss and decided to bat first. In fact, DCW was reeling at 79-9 but a blistering partnership of 24-ball 52 between Radhav Yadav and Shikha Pandey saw the visitors get past the 130-run mark.
On the other hand, MIW lost two early wickets in the Powerplay overs but Nat Sciver-Brunt and Harmanpreet Kaur steadied the ship. In fact, the required run rate graph kept going upwards, the two experienced batters didn’t lose calm. Kaur scored 37 runs before she was run out whereas Brunt went on to score a match-winning knock of 60 runs. Melie Kerr also played a nice little cameo of 8-ball 14 for MIW.
“Has to be one of the greatest moments in cricket. The team gelled brilliantly. Amazing friendships among the team members. We gave them yesterday as they were tired. We had a team meeting yesterday. When we were off, we had some brilliant time together. It’s been a wonderful experience,” Edwards said after the game.
On the other hand, Saika Ishaque, who impressed in the inaugural edition of WPL, was on cloud nine after the win. She took 15 wickets in 10 matches at an average of 16.27 and an economy rate of 7.01 and played a key role in the success of the team.
“I cannot explain my happiness after winning the tournament. It has been a dream come true. The dream for the tournament has been this, winning the trophy, which has been achieved. My plans were simple. Keep it tight and bowl dot after dot. There were plans A, B and C. But tonight those didn’t work. However, I went with plan C, which was bowling dots. Wong’s plan was to pick wickets with full tosses (laughs),” Saika said after the game.
MIW bowling coach Jhulan Goswami was also delighted with the team’s win in the final and gave credit to the collective effort.
She said after the game, “You cannot do all those things on a plan [on wickets off full-tosses]. Thanks to Lotty and others, this was my first assignment as a coach. The girls put everything and they have done their best. They believed that they will be able to do their best whenever they get the opportunity. We’re all proud of them. Many times Harmanpreet has gone through these situations and not able to cross the ladder. First day we said this time you have to cross the ladder. She has taken responsibility, the way she handled the team from day 1 is amazing. She came here after a tournament straightaway and not even one training session she said she was tired.”
