WPL 2025: Smriti Mandhana’s RCB spoil Mumbai Indians’ party, Delhi Capitals’ top spot confirmed | Cricket News
Delhi Capitals played their last league match on March 7 in Lucknow, and they will next be in action on Saturday in the final as their top spot was finally confirmed on Tuesday. They had to wait till the last over of the league phase to have confirmation for their place on top of the standings as Mumbai Indians fell short in the run-chase against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Brabourne Stadium. Meg Lanning’s DC have now made it to the final for the third straight season but will come in cold to the title clash because of the skewed schedule. In contrast, MI – should they reach the final – will play four matches in six days. First up, they take on Gujarat Giants in the Eliminator on Thursday.
The story of the night in Mumbai was RCB’s batting unit firing collectively as they reached 199/3 in their 20 overs. MI In what has been a tournament tailor-made for run-chases, Brabourne Stadium has now witnessed back-to-back wins for sides batting first.
Asked to bat first, RCB rode on skipper Smriti Mandhana’s 37-ball 53 and useful contributions from Ellyse Perry (49 off 38 balls), Richa Ghosh (36 off 22) and Georgia Wareham (31 off 10). In reply, MI were stopped at 188/9 with Nat Sciver-Brunt scoring a sensational 35-ball 69. S Sajana raised MI hopes with a 12-ball 23 before perishing to Perry. For RCB, Sneh Rana regered excellent figures of 3/26 in four overs, while Georgia Wareham (1/29 in 4) was also impressive with the ball. Kim Garth picked up two wickets for 33 runs as RCB emerged victorious.
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Earlier, RCB were off to a flying start with the opening duo of skipper Mandhana and S Meghana putting on 41 runs in quick time before the latter got out while going for one too many. Mandhana later chuckled at how her own season with the bat resembled her team’s – good start, good finish, lost out in the middle phase. “Being in touch and not scoring was eating away at me, so nice to contribute,” she said. Her reaction for the half century was understandably muted as well.
For MI, going into the knockouts, there are a couple of concerns to address. The move to promote Amelia Kerr to open with Hayley Matthews hasn’t paid off. Their batting unit is still overly reliant on Nat Sciver Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur and Matthews. With the ball, the MI skipper rued the runs that were leaked in the last couple of overs. It’s been a up-and-down season for the inaugural edition winners, and now they have lost their first match in Mumbai. On the flip side though, they have never lost to Gujarat Giants across three seasons of WPL and will head into the Eliminator with the upper-hand.
