Riding on a brilliant all-rounder performance by Alice Capsey, Delhi Capitals have become the first team to qualify for the final of the 2023 Women's Premier League after beating UP Warriorz by 5 wickets in the last league stage match of the season.
Delhi and Mumbai Indians both completed the league stage with 12 points each but Delhi (+1.856) finished at the top position in the standings due to a better run rate than Mumbai's (+1.711).
Second and third placed Mumbai and UP now face-off in the only Eliminator of the tournament, on Friday, and the winner of that game will then take on Delhi in the title clash on Sunday.
England's 18-year-old Alice Capsey claimed 3-26 off her four overs as Delhi Capitals restricted UP Warriorz to 138/6 in their 20 overs, with a blazing unbeaten 32-ball 58 from Tahlia McGrath taking UP to where they eventually finished. Capsey came back to contribute with the bat too as she scored 34 off 31 balls after skipper Meg Lanning (39) and Shafali Verma (21) had raised 56 runs for the first wicket in the Power-play.
Delhi suffered a slight wobble as they lost Shafali, Jemimah Rodrigues (3) and Lanning in quick succession as they slumped to 70/3. Capsey and Marizanne Kapp (34 not out) raised 60 runs for the fourth wicket partnership that put them firmly on road to victory.
Kapp struck a four as Delhi Capitals reached 142/5 in 17.5 overs and thus took their points tally to 12 points from six wins from eight matches. They tied with Mumbai Indians but finished ahead because of a better net run rate of +1.856 as compared to the +1.771 of Mumbai. Mumbai had to win the match in 11 overs but could not.
Earlier, Tahlia McGrath struck a 32-ball 58 as UP Warriorz posted 138/6 after Delhi Capitals won the toss and elected to field.
McGrath struck eight boundaries and two sixes during her 32-ball knock that helped UP set up a decent total as their middle-order batters failed to fire.
UP started off well in that pursuit as openers Alyssa Healy and Shweta Sehrawat raised 30 runs before the latter was out, caught by Jess Jonassen off Radha Yadav as she attempted a big heave by got beaten by the turn and ended up producing an easy skier.
Healy, who started by hitting Marizanne Kapp for a four off the first delivery, also despatched a knee-high full toss from Radhua Yadav to the boundary and also struck the spinner for a brilliant six in the eighth over, muscling away a full delivery that landed wide.
She hammered Shikha Pandey for a four and was out in an eventful 10th over in which she was dropped by bowler Capsey off a low full toss on the third ball, punched the fifth delivery for a four between cover and wide long-on and is out off the final delivery, giving Capsey the charge only to see the ball swing past the bat to keeper Taniya Bhatia who whips off the bails to find her out by a long distance.
Simran Shaikh got out for 11 runs and Kiran Navgire is stumped by Bhatia off Jonassen and it eventually was McGrath that took the Warriorz to a decent total.
She had eight boundaries and two sixes as UP Warriorz lost wickets at regular intervals against disciplined bowling. McGrath struck Radha Yadav for boundaries off successive deliveries and hammered Jonassen for a four and six off successive deliveries in the 19th over.
She handed Capsey the same treatment in the final over, hitting a four and six off the third and fourth deliveries ending the innings with a four off the final delivery. In between, she ran two doubles as UP Warriorz claimed 19 runs from the last over bowled by Capsey.
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