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Verma, Jonassen power Capitals into WPL playoffs

football01 March 2025 17:52| © MWP
By:Ross Roche
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Shafali Verma © PhotoShelter

Shafali Verma and Jess Jonassen thumped unbeaten half centuries to power the Delhi Capitals into the Women’s Premier League playoffs after they thrashed Royal Challengers Bengaluru by nine wickets at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday night.

The win solidified the Capitals place at the top of the WPL log, although they still need to win their final pool game to secure first place, while defending champs RCB lost their fourth straight game and are now in danger of missing out on the playoffs if they don’t drastically improve their form.

It was the Capitals that won the toss and chose to bowl first, with RCB struggling again with the bat as they could only post 147-5, thanks largely to Ellyse Perry’s unbeaten 60 off 47 balls (3x4; 3x6).

That wasn’t nearly enough, despite the loss of an early wicket, as Varma, 80* off 43 (8x4; 4x6) and Jonassen, 61* off 38 (9x4; 1x6) blew away the RCB bowlers in an unbeaten 146-run second wicket partnership to hammer them home with 27 balls to spare.

“Back-to-back games (after beating Mumbai Indians on Friday), we wanted to come back here and continue the momentum,” said captain Meg Lanning after the match.

“It was an excellent performance, we were not at our best in the field, but not for a lack of effort. It was just about starting again today and bringing that same energy.

“Everyone turned up today with a great mindset. We knew we had to play well to beat RCB and we are certainly happy with the performance.”

The Capitals chase got off to a poor start as Lanning struggled, taking 12 balls to score just two runs before Renuka Singh had her caught by Perry, leaving them on 5/1 in the third over.

But that was as good as it got for RCB, as the Capitals counterattacked through Varma and Jonassen, with them cracking 36 off the next three overs to reach 41-1 at the end of the powerplay, and then kicking on to 83-1 at the halfway stage.

There was no stopping the two batters as they brought up the team's hundred in the 12th over, while Jonassen was first to 50 in the same over, as she split the field at short fine leg and deep midwicket for a boundary off Kim Garth to get to the mark.

Varma brought up her half century in the next over in style, coming down the track and launching Georgia Wareham over the deep cover fence, and took charge of the rest of the innings as she slammed her side to a dominant victory.

RCB TOTAL NOT ENOUGH

In the first innings, RCB enjoyed two decent partnerships, but didn’t score at a quick enough rate to get them to a competitive total.

Struggling captain Smriti Mandhana (8) was caught by Lanning off the bowling of Shikha Pandey, to leave them on 9-1 in the second over.

That brought Perry in and she shared in two good stands, of 44 for the second wicket with Danni Wyatt-Hodge (21) and 66 for the third wicket with Raghvi Bist (33).

Wyatt-Hodge was caught behind by keeper Sarah Bryce off the bowling of Marizanne Kapp, and when Bist was stumped by Bryce off the bowling of Shree Charani, RCB were only on 119-3 in the 17th over.

They were unable to cash in down the back end as they only managed another 28 runs off the next 23 balls, while losing two more wickets, to leave them with a total that was not nearly enough in the end.

Pandey, 2-24, and Charani, 2-28, were the key wicket takers for the Capitals, while Kapp was also impressive with 1-18 in her four overs.

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BENGALURU: Smriti Mandhana (capt), Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Ellyse Perry, Richa Ghosh (wk), Raghvi Bist, Kanika Ahuja, Georgia Wareham, Sneh Rana, Kim Garth, Ekta Bisht, Renuka Singh

DELHI CAPITALS: Meg Lanning (capt), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Annabel Sutherland, Marizanne Kapp, Jess Jonassen, Sarah Bryce (wk), Niki Prasad, Minnu Mani, Shikha Pandey, Shree Charani

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