All-round DC vanquish Giants ghosts, set up title clash with RCB

An all-round performance by Delhi Capitals powered them to their first win of the season against Gujarat Giants, and paved the way for their fourth successive appearance in the Women's Premier League final. After restricting Gujarat Giants to 168 for 7, they stormed their way to the target in only 15.4 overs, with seven wickets in hand, undoing the efforts of Beth Mooney and Georgia Wareham, the two Australians who reserved their best performance of the season for the critical Eliminator.

The eighth over of the chase began with Lizelle Lee going on the back foot and missing a flick off Wareham. She was trapped leg before. The last ball of that over ended with Shafali Verma inside edging a cut on to her stumps. The double-wicket over threatened to derail Delhi Capitals' charge, or at least spice up the contest. That, however, wasn't to be. It was all but an anomaly in an otherwise one-sided run-chase.

Shafali and Lee earlier, and Jemimah Rodrigues and Laura Wolvaardt later combined to make a mockery of Giants' total on a slow surface where run-making wasn't easy.

Giants had won all their contests this season batting first, including the two they played against Capitals. Yet, Rodrigues elected to field after winning the toss.

Giants enjoyed yet another high-scoring powerplay, equalling the lowest they had scored in this tournament - 48. However, this time, they had lost three of their top four by then, and firmly pushed on the backfoot. After Devine got off the mark with a boundary that flew over the slips, the early movement had kept their openers under check. One of the outswingers, by Chinelle Henry, took the outside edge to the 'keeper to send back Devine.

Anushka Sharma and Mooney revived the innings for a brief period, with the latter cutting loose against Kapp in the fifth over, and helping the side pick 17 runs, but Nandni Sharma struck twice in her last over to undo the steady start. A fine clip from Anushka was caught by a diving Henry at mid-on, and Gardner's thick edge flew to Sneh Rana at wide slip.

A few overs later, Kanika Ahuja was stumped off Minnu Mani, and by the 11th over, Giants were firmly on the backfoot at 71 for 4 - with no boundaries scored for 33 balls.

However, Mooney's presence loomed large. She got going by stepping out against Shree Charani and slammed her for a boundary. However, she played the secondary role as Georgia Wareham continued to pick the boundary shots. The all-rounder got cheeky with Kapp's back of a length delivery, cut Nandni's slower delivery, swept Minnu, and lofted Shree Charani inside out for a six.

Henry's double-wicket 17th over threatened to pull the momentum back in DC's favour, but Mooney reserved her best for the last. She took the dominant role in the death overs to lead Giants' charge. She thumped three boundaries off Henry in the penultimate over, and then finished the innings with a pull for a boundary to take Giants to 168 for 7 - their lowest total against Capitals this season.

As satisfied as the Giants camp was with the revival of their innings, and with the total which was above par on the surface and the standards of the Kotambi leg, it turned out to be too little, as exposed by the early blitz of Lee and Shafali.

It began with Lee pulling Renuka Thakur for a boundary off the second ball. But the real rampage started from the third over, with Shafali taking apart Rajeshwari Gayakwad for three boundaries, and then taking apart Devine for 17 runs. Thereafter, no one was spared. Lee joined the act against Renuka as the pacer was put away for 21, before the South African plundered a boundary and a six off Gayakwad. All of this was happening where the bounce was slightly unpredictable.

Nonetheless, those 20 balls cost Giants 62 runs and totally sucked the contest out of their control. Wareham's double strike and a couple of quiet overs to follow did allow them to keep the pressure up, but the required rate had come close to run-a-ball. However, Rodrigues and Wolvaardt ensured that there was no way back for them.

The boundaries continued to flow from the second half of the 12th over, with the DC captain taking down her counterpart. Devine, Wareham and Gayakwad couldn't combine to make much of a difference. There were some slip-ups on the field, there were good efforts, but there was little threat to the class of the DC duo.

Rodrigues, who repeatedly attempted to back away from her stumps and attack Gayakwad, eventually fell in her attempt to go over the in-field. However, by then, the target was in sight, and five balls later, Wolvaardt lofted Wareham over the in-field for a boundary to help seal DC's place in yet another final.

Brief Scores: Gujarat Giants 168/7 in 20 overs (Beth Mooney 62*, Georgia Wareham 35; Chenille Henry 3-35, Nandni Sharma 2-44) lost to Delhi Capitals 169/3 in 15.4 overs (Lizelle Lee 43, Jemimah Rodrigues 41; Georgia Wareham 2-28) by 7 wickets