West Indies captain Hayley Matthews took three wickets to finish with Player-of-the-Series honours as Mumbai Indians brushed aside Delhi Capitals by seven wickets to clinch the inaugural Women’s Premier League title on Sunday.
Playing in the final at Brabourne Stadium, Matthews had impressive figures of 4-2-5-3 in a brilliant four-over spell of off-spin to restrict Delhi to 131-9 from their 20 overs, captain Meg Lanning top-scoring with 35 and Shikha Pandey and Radha Yadav scoring in with 27 each.
In reply, Matthews was dismissed for 13 in the fourth over, but Nat Sciver-Brunt struck an unbeaten 60 from 55 balls to guide her side over the line with three balls to spare. They required five runs to win from the final over and Sciver-Brunt fittingly got the winning runs, scooping a full toss behind for four.
“I’m just pretty happy to be able to contribute to this team’s success. We’ve had a lot of great times throughout the tournament with a lot of ups and downs and just to go out there and contribute on both ends of the field has been brilliant for me,” said Matthews.
The talismanic allrounder finished with 271 runs and 16 wickets – the most in the tournament.
Opting to bat first, Delhi were in early trouble at 35-3 in the fourth over before Lanning led a recovery in a 38-run, fourth wicket stand with South African Marizanne Kapp (18).
Kapp’s dismissal in the 11th over opened the floodgates and Delhi lost six wickets for six runs in a stunning 34-ball collapse, to totter on 79-9 at the end of the 16th.
Matthews was brilliant during this period. She claimed her first wicket in the 14th over, diving to her right to pouch a return catch and dismiss Jess Jonassen (2) before beating Minnu Mani in flight and having her stumped for one in her next over.