Like every good thing, the Women’s Premier league ‘2023
also came to an end on March 26 after Mumbai Indians (MI) outplayed Delhi Capitals (DC) in all the 3 departments of the game and clinched the first-ever WPL title and convincingly defeated DC in the last-over thriller by 7 wickets with 3 balls remaining. MI captain Harmanpreet Kaur became the first-ever captain in the history of WPL to win the inaugural coveted WPL trophy.
The partnership of Amelia Kerr and Sciver -Brunt of MI will be remembered for a long time to come for adding quick 39 runs in just 20 balls and making MI win. Apart from winning the trophy, MI also dominated the award function held at the end of the tournament. Both the cap -awards went to overseas players.
While the Purple cap for claiming the highest wickets in the tournament (16 wickets) went to West- Indian Haley Mathews (MI), the Orange cap for hitting maximum runs (345 runs) went to Australian team captain Meg Lanning (DC). The first three top run-getters of the tournament were overseas players.
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Natalie Sciver-Brunt (MI) and Tahira McGrath (UPW) became, respectively, the second and third-highest scorers of the tournament. Apart from these, the Most-Valuable Player(MVP) of the tournament went to Haley Mathews, and the Powerful Stricker of the season award was claimed by Sophie Divine (RCB).
Time For Introspection
For Indian women cricketers, the season certainly proved to be a grooming ground for them. Playing alongside star overseas cricketers must have been a dream come true for almost all of them and they must have certainly learned a lot from them standing at the other end of the pitch.
Barring Harmanpreet Kaur and upto certain extents Pooja Vastrakar (MI), Yastika Bhatia ( who also claimed emerging player of the season award) (MI), Saika Ishaque (MI), Harleen Deol (GG), and Radha Yadav (DC), none of the remaining Indian cricketers were able to put a mark in the minds of cricket lovers through their games.
They need a strict training regime if they want to compete with the international cricketers and Women’s Team India wants to keep its flag high. The two young Indian cricketers – Kiran Navgire (UPW) and Shreyanka (RCB) -were the promising finds of this tournament and given proper coaching, they are capable of serving Indian Women’s Cricket for a long time to come.
