DC women found it easy to beat UP Warriorz in a one-sided game at M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru. The runner-ups of the first edition of the league came out all guns blazing both with the ball and with the bat after suffering a last-ball loss to MI women in their previous encounter. UP Warriorz proved to be no match for DC women.
Meg Lanning won the toss and elected to field first. Her decision was proven right, as the bowlers were right on the money. Marizzane Kapp with the new ball was brilliant. She had the outswinger going which troubled the batters bug time. The South African bowled a terrific spell where she claimed three wickets and gave away just five runs in her spell of four overs.
She was assisted well by Radha Yadav who did the rest of the job in the middle overs and the death overs. The left-arm orthodox spinner had her arm ball going and bowled inaccurate lengths. Radha was rewarded for her bowling, as she claimed 4/20 in her four overs. Barring Swetha Sehrawat who scored 45(42), no other batters from Warriorz seemed any good over DC women.
DC women chase down the target with 33 balls to spare
UP Warriorz asked DC women to chase 120 runs. It did not seem a huge task for the chasing side. By the time the duo came to bat, the pitch had settled well. The duo of Meg Lanning and Shafali Verma batted well. As the target was not a huge one, Lanning decided to anchor from one end. Verma from the other end played her shots. The India batter was all over the bowlers.
While Lanning scored 51(43) and perished with just one run being required in 34 balls, Shefali remained unbeaten to score 64*(43), allowing her skipper to get to fifty. No bowler from UO Warriorz looked effective. When the scores were level, Sophie Ecclestone got the consolatory wicket. The runner-ups of WPL 2023 won the game by nine wickets with a whopping 33 balls to spare.
