Sophie Devine cringes at the wordplay in the inevitable headlines that follow her great performances. But when you routinely turn sinking causes into stirring victories, the cliches tend to write themselves. On Tuesday, it was Devine's ruthless intervention - redemption, perhaps - that restored order after a bruising previous over had gone for 23. For the second time in the season, Devine's final-over coup left the Capitals' shell-shocked, undone by her nerves of steel and precision when the margins were at their finest.

DC's chase of 175 lay in tatters when they were reduced to 100/6 in the middle of the 15th over, with their finisher, Chinelle Henry, making her way back to the pavilion. Sneh Rana joined Niki Prasad in the middle, and together they were staring at an improbable ask of 70 in 30 balls.

Although Gujarat Giants' skipper Ash Gardner conceded a boundary each to the two batters in the 10-run 16th over, the momentum truly swung Delhi's way in the next. Devine, usually calm at death, found herself at the receiving end of a Niki Prasad blitz. The youngster admittedly knew her timing was on point and was in no mood to give up just yet. What followed was measured assault as Devine messed up her lines and lengths, and Niki put the veteran to the sword with a sequence of four consecutive boundaries on the off-side - the first two lofted down over the infield, the other carved past short-third. On the fifth ball she turned over the strike to Rana, who then hacked a six into the long-on ropes to close off a game-changing over.

With 23 knocked off, the ask was down to a manageable 37 off 18 that restored belief in the DC dugout. That's roughly 12 RPO, but Tanuja Kanwer's control only allowed eight in the 18th. It was still anyone's game with the equation down to 29 off 12. Gardner brought herself on for the penultimate over, despite the obvious risk of leg-side being the shorter of the two boundaries for the two right-handers. Rana took note, and the assault continued unabated. A 6, 4, 4, to Rana, and Niki smashed a straight drive to make it a 20-run over.

It was a game GG had no business losing, yet the remarkable turnaround meant Delhi were now just two hits away from sealing the come-from-behind heist. Enter Sophie Devine, with eight to play with and an extra fielder pulled inside the ring because of a poor run-rate penalty to theoretically make boundary-hunting easier. The New Zealander, however, ensured those notions stayed in theory, and went on to outfox both set batters with her precision and variations.

Niki backed away and drove the full ball to long-on before setting off for two. Rana put in a desperate dive but appeared to be in trouble with her bat in the air. Multiple relays of multiple angles later, the TV umpire ruled it in favour of the batter after lengthy deliberation. Devine used all those minutes to quickly confer plans with her teammates. At some point in that conference she was alerted of Rana's previous attempt of stealing crease, and Devine duly pulled out of the delivery stride the very next ball to warn the Indian allrounder. Now, Devine is maybe too nice to actually go through with it, but with a playoffs spot at stake she wanted to make sure both parties were aware that every inch counted.

Once more, Niki backed away to make room, Devine followed her with another full ball down leg and all the batter sought to do was to turn the strike over. The third delivery strayed down the leg-side and granted a wide - a call GG reviewed and lost. Devine course-corrected immediately, and the legitimate third delivery was a perfect wide yorker that Rana could do nothing about despite shuffling across. This time the batter looked expectantly at the umpire for a wide signal that never came, and rightly so.

With five to get off three, GG were still on top. But this is where Devine poured in all her experience against Rana and Niki's growing agitation. Rana had been successfully advancing down the track to take the ball on the full, and she did it once more to the back-of-length slower ball from the Kiwi allrounder, only to pick out Georgia Wareham with absolute perfection at deep midwicket fence. And just like that, Devine had broken the partnership that was on the brink of transforming a certain defeat into a chase for the ages.

As Rana walked back, the sinking feeling of deja vu set in in the Delhi dugout. Only a fortnight ago, Devine had left them dumbfounded by successfully defending six in the final over in Navi Mumbai after a near-similar turnaround in what seemed like a hopeless chase at one point. Back then, too, she'd rid both the set batters. Surely, it wasn't happening again. Right?

Minnu Mani walked in to the simplest instruction from Niki, and played her part to the letter by taking a single to bring the U19 World Cup-winning captain on strike for the final delivery. Four needed. She'd hit nine sublime ones already in her 23-ball 47 but this one would actually carry the two points for that advantage in the playoffs race.

Beth Mooney, the wicketkeeper, receded to almost the inner circle to prevent legbyes and was even called out by the umpire. The run-up Devine had to abort gave Niki an extra few seconds to re-evaluate her boundary options. Anything to the shorter one - the off-side - would do. Devine packed it, with the three permitted fielders outside all along the leg-side ropes.

To a length delivery on middle and leg, Niki backed away to the leg-side aiming to go downtown. But Devine gave her no width to work the pace-off delivery, and the youngster dragged it down straight to the waiting long-on fielder.

For the second time in the season, Devine defended a scarcely-believable single-digit score in the final over for a team to complete the first-ever double against the Capitals in competition history.

What stood out beyond the sheer skill and her experience was Devine's composure in what was already turning out to be a long and dramatic over, and her bouncebackability. Her character and leadership shone though as she, fully aware of the stakes, put her hand up for the tough over and a high-pressure task that was make-or-break for GG's campaign.

"To be honest, I probably felt like I owed it to Ash [Gardner]," the New Zealand allrounder told the broadcaster after scripting the three-run victory. "We got absolutely pumped in one of those overs and put a bit of pressure back on us when we probably had the game under control. I thought it was incredibly brave of Ash to bowl the penultimate over as an off-spinner bowling into the shorter side. But it was pretty similar to our last game against them: just staying really calm and keeping the plans as simple as possible," she added.

Lightning doesn't strike twice. Devine might, on evidence.