 "Sajeevan Sajana celebrates after hitting a six off last ball to help Mumbai Indians win. BCCI image")
The second season of Women’s Premier League (WPL) got off to a cracking start on Friday as defending champions Mumbai Indians registered a nail-biting last-ball win over Delhi Capitals with Sajeevan Sajana hitting a six on the last ball when five runs were still needed. It was a sort of finish that you hope for in a T20 and WPL 2024 opener delivered with the same at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
The 172-run chase was set up by MI captain Harmanpreet Kaur who scored a blistering 55 off 34 but fell to Alice Capsey on the penultimate ball of the match. MI were still in need of five runs to win when Sajana came to face the last ball. Unfazed by the challenge, Sajana then danced down the track, bringing Mumbai to 173-6 and sealing a four-wicket win.
The 29-year-old, a captain for state side Kerala, had been scooped up by Kaur’s team in December at the bottom end of the player auction price band.
England all-rounder Alice Capsey top-scored for Delhi with 75.
The WPL was first staged in 2023 and has already proved popular with fans and a lucrative earner for India’s cricket board.
Franchise rights were auctioned off last January for $572.5 million, while media rights for the first five seasons were sold to Viacom18 for $116.7 million.
The two deals made the WPL the second-most valuable women’s sports league after the WNBA women’s basketball in the United States.