Delhi Capitals will take on Mumbai Indians in the final of the Women’s Premier League 2025 at Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium tonight. Interestingly, the two teams had competed the first-ever final of the WPL in 2023 at the same venue. On that occasion, Mumbai Indians led by Harmanpreet Kaur defeated Meg Lanning’s Delhi Capital by 7 wickets and were crowned as the champions.
The next season, while Mumbai Indians failed to qualify for the final, Delhi Capitals were yet again in the finale and this time their opponents were Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Smriti Mandhana’s Royal Challengers Bengaluru beat Delhi Capitals by 8 wickets as RCB’s prolonged wait for a trophy (with men’s team in the IPL and with women’s team in the WPL) finally ended. Yet again, Meg Lanning’s girls were left licking their wounds.
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Will Delhi Capitals be third time lucky?
To overcome the ghosts of the past, the Capitals will require Lanning’s cricketing acumen and experience. The Aussie after all is a seven-times World Cup winner. In her 13-year-long career she accumulated 8000 runs for the Southern Stars.
DC will draw inspiration from the league stage performance where they won five of their eight matches and registered victories over MI twice. Lanning cannot make DC win the title without the support of her teammates. The likes of Shafali Verma, the team’s top run-scorer in the season, and Jess Jonassen, the team’s highest wicket-taker, will play a key role in delivering the team their first title.
MI too are stacked with talent. Two of the top three run getters this season are from MI. Nat Sciver-Brunt has got 493 runs and is leading the run-scoring chart. Hayley Matthews is third on the list with 304 runs. Matthews with her off-spin has claimed 17 scalps and is also the season’s highest wicket-taker. Harmanpreet have had an up and down season. Her two half-centuries came against Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Gujarat Giants. But the Indian skipper in known to come up with match-winning performances on big days. MI will hope today is that day!
Historically, Delhi has dominated Mumbai but the advantage is only marginal. The two teams have squared-off seven times and Delhi has emerged victorious four times while on the other three occasions MI ended up on the winning side.
