WPL 2023, Mumbai Indians' road to final: A team full of multi-talented gems

Mumbai Indians won their first five games and then lost two to put their position in the final in jeopardy. However, their victory in the eliminator was one to remember

Mumbai Indians started brilliantly in the Women’s Premiere League 2023 as they won their first game, which was also the tournament opener against Gujarat Giants, by whooping 143 runs. They also crossed the barrier of 200 runs in that very game.

They continued their winning streak for the next four games, almost assuring themselves of a place in the final before losing two of their last three league matches. Eventually, they got through to the final thanks to a great win in the Eliminator. Here’s how their road to the final has been. 

Great start to the tournament against Giants

After the fireworks and great performances from Kriti Sanon, Kiara Advani and AP Dhillon, Mumbai Indians began their own fiery performance powered by Hayley Matthews. Harmnanpreet Kaur joined the party and before the Giants could understand what was happening, Amelia Kerr’s 45* and Kaur’s 65 alongside a quickfire 15 from Pooja Vastrakar saw Mumbai reach 207. 

Bogged down by the pressure of chasing a huge total, the Gujarat Giants seemed no match to the opposition and folded out for a meagre 64, losing the game by a huge margin of 143 runs. Saika Isahaque took 4/11 for Mumbai. 

Magical Matthews mitigates the Royal Challenge

Matthews continued her form from the first game and scored a brilliant 77* off just 38 balls as the women in blue and gold chased down 156 in just 14.2 overs. Along with the West Indian, Nat Sciver-Brunt also scored a fifty. Earlier, Matthews’ controlled bowling effort in which she took 3-28, helped Mumbai restrict the Bangalore side to only 155. 

Bowlers do it for Mumbai against the Capitals

In their third match of the season, the trio of Issy Wong, Matthews and Ishaque did the damage with the ball and bowled out the Capitals for 105 in 18 overs. All three of them took three wickets apiece while one was taken by Pooja Vastrakar. 

Chasing 106 was as easy as it gets for the Mumbai batters and with openers adding 65, it got easier than expected with the team from the west coast sailing through by eight wickets. 

Kaur, Sciver save it against the Warriorz

It was the first game since the beginning of the league in which Matthews did not contribute. The Bajan queen could take only one wicket with the ball and scored just 12. Chasing 160, Mumbai were helped by Yastika Bhatia’s 42 before Sciver-Brunt (45*) and skipper Kaur (53*) took them home with 16 balls to spare. 

Earlier, UP had won the toss and decided to bat first. They reached 159-6 in 20 overs, thanks to 58 from skipper Alyssa Healy and 50 from Tahlia McGrath. 

Kaur to the rescue again as Mumbai beat Giants

It didn’t seem like Mumbai even broke a sweat to get their fifth win in a row. Playing the crossover against the Giants, the Blue and Gold brigade were in trouble having lost Matthews in the very first over. Bhatia and Sciver-Brunt played at a speed not associated with them leading to a slow run rate. If it were not for the 30-ball 51 from Harman, Mumbai would not have been able to reach 162. 

Giants once again could not muster the courage to chase down the total and could score only 107-9 in their 20 overs. 

Death by Spin as Warriorz give Mumbai a first taste of defeat

After winning five in a row, Mumbai were in for a shock when they played the UP Warriorz at the DY Patil Stadium. The trio of Sophie Ecclestone, Deepti Sharma and Rajeshwari Gayakwad bowled the Indians out for 127. 

It took Warriorz some chasing, but they eventually did win the game with a ball to spare, handing Mumbai their first defeat of the tournament. 

Kapp, Capsey and Pandey take DC ahead

After the first defeat, another shocker awaited the Charlotte Edwards coached team as they were defeated again. Once again it was the batting that failed the Mumbai side and they could manage to get to only 109/8. 

Marizanne Kapp and Shikha Pandey were the bowlers that did most of the damage. Later on, Alice Capsey made a quickfire 38 off just 17 balls and guided her team home in just nine overs. This improved the net run rate of Delhi Capitals and deteriorated that of Mumbai. Such was the jolt to their net run rate that the Harmanpreet-led team could never recover from it and eventually finished second even after having the same number of points as the Capitals at the end of the league stage. 

Mumbai bounce back against Bangalore

Now, it was a matter of winning big for Mumbai to make sure that they get ahead of the Delhi Capitals and march straight into the final of the WPL 2023. The bowlers did well to restrict Bangalore to 125/9 in 20 overs. However, the batters could not really stand up to the occasion and took 16.3 overs to chase down a small total. 

Their net run rate could not get above the Capitals. With Delhi beating UP in their last game, Mumbai were forced to play the Eliminator and win it to make it to the final. 

Crush Warriorz to get to the final

In the Eliminator, Mumbai brought out their A-game to the table. Scicver-Brunt’s well-timed 72 coupled with Issy Wong’s hat trick gave them a terrific victory over the Warriorz and sent them through to the final of the inaugural season of the Women’s Premiere League 2023.