You could tell Harmanpreet Kaur was in her element at one point in the eleventh over of the Mumbai Indians’ innings. Delhi Capitals captain Meg Lanning increased security in the area by forcing Shafali Verma to the extra cover boundary after being blasted for two straight sixes in the cover-point area. She then spoke briefly with her bowler, Jess Jonassen, possibly offering advice on the next delivery to be made to the captain of the Mumbai Indians. Although Harmanpreet skillfully threaded the gap and beat Verma’s rushing effort to the fence, Jonassen’s flawless execution of the plan—a solid length ball gliding in on middle and leg—was a warning flag for DC.
Based on the matches, Lanning had included Jonassen in the assault. The DC captain had just been carted for a six and a four by Annabel Sutherland, who had already removed Harmanpreet six times in 17 Twenty20 matches prior to the WPL 2025 final, and had turned to her most reliable bowler. In the 23 T20 matches they had previously played, Jonassen had also dismissed Harmanpreet twelve times, but the manner the MI captain played with her fields to spearhead Mumbai’s comeback seemed to hint at the dramatic twist.
By the first half of the fifth over, Harmanpreet was walking in to bat inside the PowerPlay only for the third time in the ten WPL 2025 games, with DC comfortably ahead after losing both of their openers to Marizanne Kapp. After being called in to bat in the final, she arrived to the middle at 14/2, and by the end of PowerPlay, MI was limping at 20/2 and in dire need of their captain and vice-captain to save them. In contrast to her quick-starting style during this WPL season, Harmanpreet allowed herself a few deliveries to settle in and calm the ship given the circumstances and the occasion.However, she attacked the DC bowlers after she had her eye in.
Harmanpreet overcame unfavorable match-ups and a shaky knee to amass 55 in the following 29 deliveries of her stay and turn the DC upside down after starting at 11 off 15 balls prior to the start of the Sutherland over. The counterattack and acceleration were so quick and well-timed that they took Delhi by surprise and made tournament Orange Cap holder Nat Sciver-Brunt appear insignificant at the opposite end. MI amassed 59 runs in the five overs between them, with their captain leading the charge and scoring 42 of those runs. The two timeouts were preceded by single-digit scores.
Harmanpreet typically tries to boost the ante almost immediately after entering WPL 2025. Despite her 6 off 10 today, her strike-rate in the first 10 deliveries of the 10 WPL 2025 innings is 146.83, which is a significant improvement above the 97.53 she scored in WPL 2023 and the 80 she scored in WPL 2024. In the previous two seasons, her boundary percentage was 12.34 and 9.09; in this edition, it has impressively increased to 21.51%. Harmanpreet may have stated publicly that the quality batters she has a buffer of before and after her no. 4 position are responsible for the batting flexibility she enjoys in the MI setup.She is MI’s second-highest run-maker of all time with a total of 851, which was only surpassed by Sciver-Brunt (1027), and for good reason. But Harmanpreet also knows deep down that she is the center of this batting order, especially in times like this.
Just last year, MI lost their chance to win back-to-back titles due to a batting surrender against RCB in the Eliminator. Her side had failed to score the final 16 runs needed off 12 deliveries when Harmanpreet left the game at a critical point in a modest 135-run chase, in the 18th over. Her ejection for a duck caused a middle-order collapse that left the team with a subpar total of 113 in their (inconsequential) most recent league match against the same opposition. A wounded Harmanpreet made a public call for more middle-order players to step up following those two games.She was guilty of leaving too much to do in the end in another league game from the 2024 edition—72 deliveries off 30 deliveries, to be exact—which she managed to do miraculously to her credit. However, lessons learned from the season’s business end prompted her to examine herself more closely and fueled her desire to abandon the safety-first strategy.
You only need to look at the Eliminator from the previous evening at the same location. After arriving in the middle on the strength of a second-wicket century partnership between Hayley Matthews and Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet hammered a boundary-filled 12-ball 36 not out that, in all likelihood, was the difference. Harmanpreet complied with the situation on Saturday in the final, which called for more tact, but she also remembered the new batting strategy that has been so effective for her side this year. She skillfully switched caution for aggression to build up MI’s match-winning total of 149 by drawing on all of her experience playing on the Brabourne tracks, which she had done three times in four days prior to the final. DC’s early advantage was thrown out the window as the skipper took some calculated chances and it paid off.
“I think it’s helped that we played three games here. We knew that we could catch up later on in the innings,” said Charlotte Edwards, MI head coach. “And it was always hard – the first six overs at this ground, we always felt there was something in the pitch. She just read the conditions brilliantly. She knew which bowlers to be aggressive against. I mean, it was just such a great innings and really set us up.”
Jonathan Batty, Edwards’ opponent, also tipped his cap to the outstanding Harmanpreet, who took the lead and was instrumental in limiting Delhi to their third consecutive loss in as many final appearances. Batty remarked, “I thought Harman took the attack to us,” following the close loss. “I thought we bowled pretty well but she took a few risks and got away with it because she backed herself to do that.”
Harmanpreet’s game-changing 66* off 44 deliveries was supported by a clinical bowling effort, which helped MI successfully defend a 149, which was below average. The captain praised her bowling unit for making “150 look like 180” by keeping DC under strict control and limiting them to 141 in response. However, if you ask any of those bowlers—many of whom were in the dugout, joining in on the chants of the crowd during the Harmanpreet carnage—they will explain the origin of that idea.
