Navi Mumbai: South African pacer Marizanne Kapp struck twice in two balls early on as Delhi Capitals restricted Mumbai Indians to a meagre 109 for 8 in their Women’s Premier League match here Monday.
Invited to bat in the top-of-the-table clash, Mumbai were reduced to 10 for 3 in 3.3 overs with Kapp (2/13) fetching wickets off consecutive deliveries in the third over, and they never recovered from there.
Pooja Vastrakar top-scored for Mumbai with a 26 while captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Issy Wong contributed 23 each.
The 37-run partnership for the fifth wicket between Kaur and Vastrakar was the highest for Mumbai.
Kapp first forced Yastika Bhatia (1) to edge an in-swinging delivery to wicketkeeper Taniya Bhatia before knocking off Nat Sciver-Brunt’s stumps the next ball for a first ball duck.
Kapp could not complete a hat-trick as Kaur defended solidly. But, Mumbai suffered another jolt as Hayley Matthews (5) fell the next over with the lively Jemimah Rodrigues taking a stunning one-handed catch at mid-on off the bowling of Shikha Pandey.
Mumbai were in tatters at 10 for 3 in the fourth over and they crawled to their lowest powerplay total of 19 for 3, before another blow struck them.
Introduced in the seventh over, Arundhati Reddy struck in her fifth ball, dismissing Amelia Kerr, who offered a loose shot into the hands of Bhatia behind the stumps as Mumbai wickets continued to tumble.
Vastrakar then struck a six and a four out of the blue as Mumbai took 18 runs from the 10th over to reach 46 for 4 at the halfway mark.
With Kaur needing to play sheet-anchor, Vastrakar was given the task to take risks and she had another couple of boundaries in the next over. But her stay was cut short with Jonassen dismissing her in the 12th over for 26.
Runs were hard to come by and even an in-form Kaur could not force the pace of Mumbai innings. She had a soft dismissal, trying to find a boundary with Jemimah taking the catch at deep midwicket.
Mumbai were 74 for 6 when Kaur was out and they added 35 runs in the last five overs to go past the 100-run mark.
Shikha Pandey and Jess Jonassen also chipped in with two wickets for DC.
PTI
