In a pre-tournament video where WPL captains are made to pick a chit and ask each other questions, Alyssa Healy is told to pick between Meg Lanning’s square cut or Smriti Mandhana’s cover drive. “If I could bottle both, that would be great,” she says. Speaking to this daily after Lanning’s retirement, Aussie legend Lisa Sthalekar had no hesitation in saying “You can’t go past that square drive of hers” when asked what she’d remember the most about Lanning’s career.
Her international career might be behind her now, but Lanning showed on Tuesday night at the Arun Jaitley Stadium just how good her game on the offside is. During her 38-ball 55 against Mumbai Indians, Lanning peppered the offside boundary during a clinic on finding gaps. However, Jemimah Rodrigues’ knock later on managed to overshadow Lanning’s genius.
Riding on those two knocks, Delhi Capitals posted 192/4 as Lanning’s DC handed MI their first-ever defeat while chasing in the WPL, as Harmanpreet Kaur and Co were restricted to 163/8 and lost by 29 runs.
Meg Lanning made her first home game outing memorable with a solid fifty 👌👌
Relive her knock here 🎥🔽 #TATAWPL | #DCvMI | @DelhiCapitals
— Women’s Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) March 5, 2024
Three shots by Lanning in the 12th over bowled by leg-spinner Amelia Kerr can be preserved in a cricket museum. With the fielders stationed inside the ring, Lanning rocked back to punch one through point. Four. Now a fielder was pushed back to the fence, but Lanning went aerial this time, a square drive off her front foot. Six. The best was yet to come though, as next ball she pressed forward, then transferred weight to her backfoot, to square-cut. The ball this time went to the left of the deep fielder. Four. Geometric precision that would have made Euclid proud.
Not long after, Rodrigues would go on to play her best knock in the WPL. Starting steadily, as she came into the match with somewhat of a lean run, the Mumbaikar shifted gears steadily. The standout shots of her knock too were square of the wicket on the offside, moving around the crease to use the slice and inside-out drives to great effect. The 33-ball 69* powered DC to a winning total.
Jemimah delights Delhi with an entertaining knock 🤩
Sit back and enjoy her FIFTY 🎥🔽#TATAWPL | #DCvMI | @JemiRodrigues
— Women’s Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) March 5, 2024
The MI chase barely got going as DC struck early and frequently, to break the back of a strong top order. Lanning’s team stayed on top of the table while MI suffered their second defeat of the season and slipped to third due to a dip in their Net Run Rate.
Meanwhile, MI’s Shabnim Ismail bowled a delivery clocked at 132.1 kmph, the fastest ball recorded in women’s cricket.
Brief scores: Delhi Capitals 192/4 (Jemimah Rodrigues 69*, (Meg Lanning 53) beat Mumbai Indians 163/8 (Amanjot Kaur 42; Jess Jonassen 3/21) by 29 runs
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