New Delhi, Mar 5 (IANS): Jemimah Rodrigues brought out a breath-taking display of stroke-play to hit an unbeaten 69 off 33 balls while captain Meg Lanning smashed 53 off 38 balls as Delhi Capitals scored an imposing 192/4 against Mumbai Indians in Match 12 of WPL 2024 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Tuesday.

In Delhi making their third 170+ score of the season, Jemimah was belligerent as she struck eight fours and three sixes at a strike rate of 209. Her shots over point were especially captivating as she used that 46-metre square boundary to perfection. She was batting on 13 off 14 at one point, before accelerating to hit 56 runs in her last 19 balls. Meg Lanning was at her solid best in making her third WPL fifty of the current season and also crossed the 500-run mark in the tournament. Shafali Verma and Alice Capsey played good cameos to contribute to Delhi reaching a commanding position at the halfway mark.

Shafali gave a blistering start to Delhi’s innings with a well-placed drive off Shabnim and chipped a lofted drive over mid-off against Saika Ishaque. After a tickle down leg off Shabnim for four, Shafali had an early life when Saika shelled a chance after running to her left at mid-on. Lanning joined the boundary-hitting party by nailing a straight-bat loft down the ground off Nat Sciver-Brunt for six and got a four by tickling past a diving backward square leg. Shafali hammered back-to-back sixes off Shabnim – lofting down the ground and carving over mid-off.

But Shabnim had the last laugh as she angled a back-of-the-length ball into Shafali, who tried to pull and got a faint edge behind to keeper Yastika Bhatia. Alice Capsey wowed everyone with a pulled four to get off the mark as Delhi got 56/1 from their power-play. Alice and Meg then took 14 runs off the eighth over against Amelia Kerr –- the former nailing her reverse-sweep and drive past cover for two fours, while the latter brought out her trademark square cut for a boundary.

Alice’s attempt to pre-empt the reverse sweep backfired when she played onto her stumps off Hayley Matthews. But there was no stopping Meg Lanning as she took two square-cut fours and a lofted six off Amelia in the 12th over yielding 20 runs. Meg got her fifty in 36 balls by using Pooja Vastrakar’s pace to steer between backward point and short third-man. A ball later, her knock ended at 53 when she mistimed the pull and Amelia dived forward to take a stunning catch at deep square leg.

Through tight lines and lengths from Pooja and Nat Sciver-Brunt, Mumbai gave away only nine runs in the 14th and 15th overs. Jemimah Rodrigues took on Shabnim by smacking fours over long-on and backward point, before Marizanne Kapp sent one over mid-off for another boundary.

Jemimah’s awesome time continued when she moved across to pull Pooja for four and when the pacer pitched it wide, she sliced the drive over backward point for another boundary. Though Marizanne was castled by Saika, Jemimah swept over fine leg and lofted a superb drive over backward point to take back-to-back fours.

She continued to toy with the field by shuffling across the crease to slice over backward point for four at the start of the 19th over by Nat. Jemimah followed by lofting over the bowler’s head and pulling over long leg to hit back-to-back sixes –- the first of which got her fifty in 27 balls. In the final over, Jemimah smashed Hayley over long-on for six and swept past a diving short fine leg for four to be unbeaten on 69 off 33 balls.

Brief scores:

Delhi Capitals 192/4 in 20 overs (Jemimah Rodrigues 69 not out, Meg Lanning 53; Pooja Vastrakar 1-20, Hayley Matthews 1-23) against Mumbai Indians