WPL Game 2: DC v/s MI

Beyond the headlines; NSB's creative batting, Pandey's brilliance, MI's batting issues, & more!

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Feb 15, 2025

The Delhi Capitals beat the Mumbai Indians by 2 wickets, but it was so much closer than it sounds. A last ball victory that went down to a DRS review for run out!

All after MI only scored 164 on a pitch that saw 400+ runs yesterday. I have no idea how MI made it so close, and then lost after seemingly getting the upper hand.

But, what happened beyond the headlines?

Nat Sciver-Brunt’s creative stroke-play

Written by Aksay Ram M. You can follow him on Twitter, Instagram & YouTube.

Nat Sciver-Brunt walked out to the crease with a clear mandate; score quick in the first powerplay. But, Shikha Pandey’s tight stump-to-stump bowling (plus the pitch’s low bounce conditions) limited her ability to score runs straight down the ground.

She tried to play a few shots straighter, but failed to connect. So, she started targetting the area behind square with incredible success. Nat Sciver-Brunt scored 21% of her runs behind square, including five boundaries. Comparatively, the rest of the MI batters only scored 8% of their runs in the region.

Additionally, this strategy forced DC’s bowlers to change their line from her stumps to outside off, allowing NSB a couple easy boundaries through the off-side.

Unsurprisingly, this creativity led NSB to score 80 of her team’s 153 non-extra runs. That’s more than half the total for those of you bad at math!

Data from Cricviz.

Shikha Pandey’s perfect plan and execution

Written by Krithika Venkatesan, who works as a talent scout with RCB. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

On the same track that witnessed over 400 runs the previous night, Shikha Pandey delivered one of the most economical spells in Women's Premier League history, finishing with 2/14 in her four overs.

After opting to field first, Delhi Capitals handed the new ball to Shikha Pandey. And she did what she does best; using her swing to terrorise each batter with a bespoke strategy.

Against Hayley Matthews, she focused on keeping the ball outside off and swinging it in. Since Matthews tends to drive when the ball is in that zone and the ball was keeping low, it worked well.

She began with a good-length delivery that swung in toward the middle stump. Pandey pulled her length back slightly on the next delivery, inviting Matthews to drive. However, the ball stayed low, catching Matthews by surprise. Meg Lanning made no mistake at slip, taking a sharp catch.

Pandey opted for the fuller length against Nat Sciver-Brunt that she has struggled with in the past. She nailed as many as nine fuller-length deliveries to the England all-rounder, including the first five.

For Yastika Bhatia, Pandey switched to around the wicket in her third over, angling the ball into the left-hander. With a slip in place, the Indian pacer started with a short-of-length delivery outside leg to Yastika Bhatia, who nudged it for a single.

The plan soon worked though as Bhatia misjudged a delivery in the fifth over, losing her leg stump. Bhatia has previously struggled against pacers coming around the wicket and swinging the ball in. Ellyse Perry, during her six-wicket haul against Mumbai Indians last season, had followed the same strategy.

Pandey’s numbers place her amongst the league’s elite. She bowled 16 of the DC bowlers’ 44 dot balls in the game, and is only the second Indian bowler to have over 100 dot balls in the WPL powerplay (106). The other, Renuka Singh, has bowled 108 dots but in three extra overs.

Overall, Pandey has bowled 196 dot balls in the league. Only her missing teammate and strike partner Marizanne Kapp has more with 206.

MI’s alternative to the LHB-RHB batting combo

Written by Tarutr Malhotra.

India Men’s coach Gautam Gambhir has taken the idea to an extreme, but the idea of a left hand batter and a right hand batter at the crease together has picked up steam in cricket. The idea is simple; if you have to keep switching field placements and bowling plans, it throws the bowlers off rhythm.

MI might have implemented an alternate version of this strategy. The peak of their batting performance came between the 5th and 11th overs, when Harmanpreet Kaur and Nat Sciver-Brunt made DC’s bowlers look like amateurs.

NSB is famously a legside-heavy right-hand bat, and today was no different. She scored 69% of her runs on the legside, targetting her favoured bottom-hand technique no matter where the ball was pitched. Interestingly, Kaur - her right handed partner in the middle - scored 62% of her runs on the offside.

And the combination worked. Kaur & NSB scored 73 runs in 39 balls together, at a strike rate of 187.18. The rest of the MI batting order scored 91 runs in 76 balls, at a strike rate of just 119.74.

So, what’s harder? Premeditated field placement changes to match an LHB-RHB combo, or bowling strategy innovations on the fly to counter two right handers targetting entirely different sections of the pitch?

Data from Cricviz.

MI has a batting problem

Written by Richa N. You can follow her on BlueSky, and on the PCCI Podcast.

At the 11 over mark and 107/3, Harmanpreet Kaur was back in the pavilion. A quick fire 42 off 22 had set MI up to possibly score over 200 runs.

But the the rest of the batting order did not inspire much confidence. Beyond Amelia Kerr were two all-rounders with a poor record for this particular requirement; Sajeevan Sajana averages just 29.00 in the WPL (with a strike rate of 158.18), while Amanjot Kaur averages 13.50 with a strike rate of less than 119.11. Unsurprisingly, neither stuck around for long after Kerr’s unfortunate run out.

The tail is no better as Jintimani Kalita has the highest WPL score of just 3 amongst the bowlers. The bulk of the runs have to come from the top and middle order and if they lose quick wickets in the powerplay, this sets the batting up to fail.

The Mumbai Indians team have an established batting lineup who won the first edition of the WPL. But, the women’s batting game has moved too fast for them. The top order of Yastika Bhatia, Nat Sciver-Brunt & Amelia Kerr all bat under a 135 strike rate range. If Hayley Matthews or Harmanpreet Kaur don’t chip in, it becomes tough for this batting lineup to score 200+.

In comparison, the reigning champions lower order is full of players that can capitalise on a good (or bad!) start. RCB have Richa Ghosh (Ave: 38.25, SR: 148.06), Kanika Ahuja (Ave: 21.33, SR: 147.12) and Georgie Wareham (Ave: 20.14, SR: 135.57) come in at 5,6 and 7 respectively.

Unless MI magically find explosive batters in their reserves, they will need to get creative with their batting strategy to make it back to the final.

Data from the WPL website.