In a globe-trotting career spanning 13 years, this is Meg Lanning's first trip to Bangalore. And it's one she's unlikely to forget in a hurry, given how the Women's Premier League 2024 kicked off.
The who's who of women's circuit descended on the Karnataka capital on Saturday for the first time since India's 2016 T20 World Cup opener at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. Amidst the glitz and glamour of the opening night festivities, the second edition of WPL began with roaring statements from the old guard and the new alike.
First up, and fittingly so, was Shabnim Ismail, who proved she's no one's backup choice. In any squad.
The loyalist Bengaluru crowd that had only incessantly chanted 'Are-Cee-Bee, Are-Cee-Bee' for the first dozen balls was stunned into silence and made to take notice. With a typical loud roar that accompanied the royal mess she'd made of Shafali Verma's stumps, the South African speedstar marked a successful transition from the UP Warriorz bench (most of) last year to the defending champions Mumbai Indians' first-choice XI. Perhaps the unsuitable chanting only spurred her on more. Ismail had arrived and more than done her part in a fine new-ball spell of 3-0-10-1.
In the face of early trouble, Lanning overcame a quiet start to swiftly change gears on the first sighting of a rookie spinner, and take the attack to the opposition alongside Alice Capsey. With her astute leadership too, Lanning quelled any remnant murmurs about her commitment to the Capitals franchise since walking away from the game at 31 last year.
Capsey herself may have been under that slightest bit of pressure, what with a star-studded overseas allrounders roster at the Capitals. Jonathan Batty however insists there was none. Backed over the experienced Jess Jonassen, the teenager vindicated the management's call with a punishing 75 in just 53 deliveries - the season's first half-century that briefly even threatened to turn into WPL's first-ever ton.
That set up the stage for Jemimah Rodrigues' finishing act, one which Hamanpreet Kaur would have disliked on the day but eventually been pleased by given the bigger picture. Rodrigues has grown into the middle-order role at DC, and India, but with her improved fearless approach to T20 batting, she has added a layer of aggression to her already street-smart cricket. She ably took the baton from the departing Capsey to propel the side to a target above their original estimates. Bsides the deft boundaries and inspired running between the wickets, both her sixes were a thing of beauty - a shimmy down the track to club Ismail over long-on and a slogsweep off Nat Sciver-Brunt to round off the death-overs assault.
Among the youngsters leaving their mark was a free-flowing Yastika Bhatia. Having fallen behind in the pecking order as India's T20 'keeper-bat, the Baroda southpaw has been using her time at MI to demonstrate that scoring quick runs comes naturally to her provided there's a bit of a role clarity. Bhatia picked up right from where she'd left last season - the Emerging Player of the Tournament award - and racked up her first WPL fifty off just 35 deliveries, despite losing Hayley Matthews second ball of the case and Sciver-Brunt six overs later. Not to forget her conviction as a wicketkeeper in convincing Harmanpreet to challenge an on-field wide call off Capsey.
Harmanpreet, of course, has made it a personal goal to bulldoze opponents on WPL opening nights. Whatever she talks of the freedom franchise/league cricket affords a cricketer, not least at MI, must all be true. India hadn't seen this unhinged version of their national captain between the two seasons. And her PoTM-worthy 55 in the tricky chase, among the plethora of other batting performances, was a testament to the fact that form may be temporary but Harmanpreet's destructive powers with the bat remain undimmed.
And then there was S Sajana, proving that first-match jitters are for kids. It was, as if, whoever wrote the script for the tournament opener saved the best for the very last.
Her WPL career is still only one ball old and Sajana is already a match-winner for the defending champions. The Kerala allrounder has overcome great odds, including losing her Wayanad family home to the 2018 Kerala floods, to realise her dream of rubbing shoulders with the best. And at 29, she has already stamped her class with a nerveless last-ball six to round off a night that started with fireworks of a different variety.
Capsey was down on her haunches immediately before Lanning picked her up. She'd been at the receiving end of MI's final-over win in the 2023 final as well, seeing them nick the game from 22 yards. MI camp broke into jubilant celebrations, many among them yet to process the significance of the incredible heist they'd just pulled off.
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