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Can Jemimah Rodrigues lead Delhi Capitals to their first WPL title? RCB challenge awaits in final
Women’s Premier League final on Thursday promises to make it an incredible cricket season even better for Smriti Mandhana or Jemimah Rodrigues.
Call it the battle of the besties. Or, more seriously, the battle of the captains-in-waiting – the Women’s Premier League final on Thursday promises to make it an incredible cricket season even better for Smriti Mandhana or Jemimah Rodrigues.
“The thing about time is that it changes” – Before the season started, Rodrigues was tasked with the challenge of helping the Delhi Capitals breach a barrier that eluded even a serial-World-Cup-winning captain, Meg Lanning.
But the one thing about Rodrigues is that there’s optimism and hope guaranteed. As players shuffled across teams at the auction in November, Capitals owner Parth Jindal was sure of having an Indian captain at the helm.
And if it has to be the year that finally ends that drought, Rodrigues’ captaincy and batting have played a crucial role. This year, unlike the last three editions, their routine wasn’t straightforward. Usually, the table toppers had to huff and puff their way to the final this time.
Contrastingly, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, hunting for their second title, had quite the run. They won five games on the trot and were the first team to qualify, but stuttered against DC and the Mumbai Indians before winning against the UP Warriorz to storm into the final.
While Mandhana’s run-scoring dominated the discourse in the year preceding this edition, it was her leadership for RCB this season that has been the standout.
Both teams boast similar strengths. While DC have an enviable opening duo in Lizelle Lee and Shafali Verma, RCB have Mandhana and Grace Harris. Nobody has made the new ball talk like Lauren Bell this season – she has picked up an overall 12 wickets in 8 matches – but uncapped pacer Nandni Sharma, with 16 wickets in nine matches, has been mighty impressive for DC in that phase of play as well.
In fact, she has the chance to finish as the leading wicket-taker and cross Sophie Devine’s tally of 17 wickets.
While Nadine de Klerk has been the all-rounder to watch out for in Ellyse Perry’s absence for RCB, DC also found an incredible all-rounder in Chinelle Henry. De Klerk has picked up 15 wickets, the most for RCB this season, and scored 126 runs. Henry has picked up 12 wickets for DC and scored 73 runs. Mandhana’s ceiling is so high that even her 290 runs across eight matches – third most in this edition overall – makes it feel like there’s more where that came from. She came close to scoring a century against DC in DY Patil Stadium and would be hoping to replicate the same on the big day.
For Rodrigues, who opened up about her struggle with anxiety after an incredible innings against Australia in the World Cup semi-final, the added responsibility of captaincy helped her navigate her own performances.
She didn’t have impressive returns with the bat in the first four matches, but her 51* against the Mumbai Indians, 34* against the Warriorz and 41 against the Gujarat Giants in the eliminator ensured she played a crucial role even with the bat in three out of four wins for DC.
“The last three or four months, I have grown the most. Especially the last month as a captain. I think the best part about captaincy is that I thought less about myself and more about the team, which took a lot of pressure off me. That gave me the space to not overthink my own game and look out for others, see what works or doesn’t work for the team instead,” Rodrigues said in the pre-match press conference. Will it finally be the year that Rodrigues-led DC end the drought, or will an upbeat RCB add another trophy to their cabinet?
