Powered by the all-round brilliance of Nat Sciver-Brunt and Hayley Matthews, Mumbai Indians head into the Women's Premier League final as favorites to claim their second title, while Delhi Capitals hope to break their title jinx in what promises to be a thrilling showdown in Mumbai on Saturday.
Sciver-Brunt (493 runs, 9 wickets) and Matthews (17 wickets and 304 runs) currently top the batting and bowling charts respectively and are crucial to MI's title charge against Meg Lanning's formidable Delhi outfit.
Lanning, who has retired from internationals and is one of the greatest captains in women's cricket, will be determined to add a WPL trophy to her decorated career and end DC's trophy drought in the women's and men's IPL since 2008.
While DC secured a direct entry to the final due to superior net run-rate, MI's firepower with the bat gives them an edge on a batting belter that the Brabourne Stadium provides.
For DC, their chances depend more on a very potent bowling attack, with Southern Stars spinner Jess Jonassen and seasoned India seamer Shikha Pandey, both of whom had 11 wickets each in the league stages at a decent economy rate.
In their last round-robin encounter, DC restricted MI to 123 for 9, largely because of efforts from Shikha and Jonassen, who shared four wickets between them as DC won that game in Bengaluru by nine wickets.
That was also a match where MI's ‘performer of the season’ Sciver-Brunt endured a rare failure. She has been in destructive form with 493 runs and five half-centuries in nine games.
To add to it, her medium pace bowling also got her nine wickets along with Matthews's off-breaks which proved to be very effective.
But on a good batting deck the White Ferns' star Amelia Kerr's leg-breaks (16 wickets) could be decisive.
Kerr might go for a few more but she has the knack of getting wickets with her fast leg breaks.
Complementing her is off-spinner Sanskriti Gupta, the season's surprise package, who has taken only four wickets but has an economy rate of less than seven.
For DC, Shafali Verma's (300 runs) Powerplay batting will be very important as the out-of-favour India star has given good starts to her team in most of the games.
She is also the best-placed Indian in the top run-getters' list at number four.
Lanning (263 runs) is the other consistent performer in their ranks, while India Under-19 World Cup-winning captain Nikki Prasad showed early promise but has not had many opportunities to bat higher up.
Two big disappointments for DC have been Jemimah Rodrigues and Marizane Kapp.
Power-hitting is also an aspect where MI is ahead of DC in terms of the number of players who can easily clear the fence.
The teams are nearly even in sixes -- MI with 30 and DC with 28 -- but Shafali leads all players with 16 maximums, far ahead of DC's next-best Jonassen (3 sixes).
For MI, though, Matthews and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur have nine sixes each and another four sixes were hit by Sciver-Brunt.
But it is the boundary count where MI are far ahead, with 80 hits to the fence from Sciver-Brunt and another 42 by Matthews.
Skipper Harmanpreet, who has been instrumental in playing crucial knocks also has 29 hits to her credit.
Teams:
Mumbai Indians: Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Akshita Maheshwari, Amandeep Kaur, Amanjot Kaur, Amelia Kerr, Chloe Tryon, Hayley Matthews, Jintimani Kalita, Keerthana Balakrishnan, Nadine de Klerk, Natalie Sciver-Brunt, Parunika Sisodia, Sajeevan Sajana, Sanskriti Gupta, G Kamalini (wk), Yastika Bhatia (wk), Saika Ishaque and Shabnim Ismail.
Delhi Capitals: Meg Lanning (captain), Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Sneh Deepthi, Alice Capsey, Annabel Sutherland, Arundhati Reddy, Jess Jonassen, Marizanne Kapp, Minnu Mani, N Charani, Niki Prasad, Radha Yadav, Shikha Pandey, Nandini Kashyap (wk), Taniya Bhatia (wk), Sarah Bryce (wk) and Titas Sadhu.
Match starts: 7:30 PM IST.
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