A lot of firsts have been achieved in WPL 2026 and this was yet another. It is the first time any team has done the double over Delhi Capitals. Not only have Gujarat Giants achieved it, they have done it in pretty much the same way. Sophie Devine defended six in the reverse leg and defended eight in this one off the last over. GG scored 174/9 in their 20 overs. DC managed 171/8 in their 20.
Jemimah Rodrigues won the toss and asked GG to bat. GG were back to their original opening pair of Devine and Beth Mooney, with Danni Wyatt out sick. Devine began with a flurry of boundaries, but was soon sent back by Marizanne Kapp. Then came in young Anushka Sharma, who changed the momentum of the innings. She played a fine knock of 39 off 25 balls with eight boundaries at a strike rate of 156. Mooney played second fiddle, kept hitting the gaps and taking singles, and gave the strike to Anushka. GG were 73/1 in 8.4 overs.
Once Sree Charani took Anushka’s wicket, DC began to control the innings a little, dismissing GG captain Ashleigh Gardner early. But Mooney was settled and piercing the off-side square region beautifully. GG raced to 128/3 in 14.3 overs. When it seemed like Mooney and Georgia Wareham’s 32-run partnership off 19 balls was taking the game away from DC, Sree Charani struck.
Her wicket-to-wicket bowling brought dividends and GG suddenly found themselves seven down. In 16 balls, GG had lost four wickets for just 11 runs. But then Tanuja Kanwer showed her batting skills, clearly showing GG team management the potential she has that they have not bothered to use. Thanks to Tanuja’s 21 (11) and DC bowlers’ and Lizelle Lee’s keeping’s generous 18 extras, GG pushed their total to 174/9 in 20 overs.
DC started off in a flier with both Shafali Verma and Lee hitting boundaries. From 26/0 in 2.1 overs, everything went downhill. None of the DC batters got going and kept getting out trying to manufacture shots, and in no time they were down to 100/6 in 14.3 overs.
That was when Sneh Rana and Niki Prasad came together and everyone must have been thinking how DC could keep their NRR from taking a battering, except those two. They had completely different ideas, and what unfolded was pure drama. In the next 27 balls, the duo scored 66 runs. Niki, who has faced a lot of questions about her retention, answered all doubts.
She hit four fours against Devine, with Rana ending the over with a six. In the last over, with nine needed, Devine had the ball. Off the first ball, Niki played down the ground and Rana used her cricket smarts to run two. There was a run-out call and the third umpire, Tony Emmatty, took a long time to make a simple decision. Rana’s bat was grounded before the stumps were broken and she was diving; though the bat never left the ground, the umpire looked at multiple replays, wasting time and clearly shifting the match’s momentum, which was then heavily towards the batting side. Extremely poor umpiring. And then Devine showed what experience does, picking up both Rana and Niki to give GG yet another narrow victory, this time by three runs.
GG are now on eight points and their last game is against MI. DC are on six points, with a final game against UPW. Whoever wins between GG and MI qualifies for sure, but if MI win and DC win, then it will come down to NRR, and RCB will go straight to the final.
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