On Tuesday, February 3, Delhi Capitals (DC) became the second finalist of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2026 after winning the Eliminator match over Gujarat Giants (GG) Women by seven wickets. DC Women will now face the table-toppers Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the final match. After coming so close, the GG Women’s campaign came to a disappointing end. The team finished at No. 2 with 10 points and a net run rate of -0.168.
Player of the Match and DC Women captain Jemimah Rodrigues led her team to a dominant victory over GG Women through valuable performances from both its batting and bowling line-up. Meanwhile, for GG Women, the loss ended their straight winning streak at four.
GG Women had a mixed display of batting line-up in the first innings. While opener Beth Mooney got an unbeaten 62 off 51 score, the failure came from their other opener Sophie Devine, who was out at 6 off 9. The remaining disappointments came from Anushka Sharma (16 off 13), captain Ashleigh Gardner (0 off 1), Kanika Ahuja (6 off 9), and Bharti Fulmali (0 off 2). However, Georgia Wareham’s 35 runs off 25 and Kashvee Gautam’s 18 runs addition somehow led GG Women to set a target of 168/7.
DC Women’s star bowler Chinelle Henry picked up three crucial wickets while youngster Nandni Sharma added two and Minnu Mani one. With the bowlers having finished off their part well, it was not up to the batters to bring in the win, and they did so through their valuable top-order batters.
The opening partnership between Lizelle Lee (43 runs off 24) and Shafali Verma (31 off 21) was a great kickstart to their run chase. But after losing both of the batters in the eighth over, the next partnership that followed, including Laura Wolvaardt (32* runs off 24 balls) and skipper Rodrigues (41 off 23), was a strong addition as DC Women completed their run chase in 16 overs. Meanwhile, GG Women succeeded in taking only three wickets through Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Wareham.
Jemimah Rodrigues on DC Women’s finals entry
Delhi Capitals Women’s captain Rodrigues is excited to take her team into the final of WPL 2026, all possible through a combined team effort from each and every player.
“It is great. This final feels different. With GG, the last two games did not go our way. If you keep believing as a team, magic happens,” she said.
Rodrigues then went on to highlight the bowling performance of DC bowlers that made the job easy for the batters to handle and finish off strongly in the second innings.
“Nothing. Even our team meeting was short. We tried not to overthink. To trust ourselves. When you keep calm, things fall into place. A lot of credit goes to our bowlers. Our bowlers won us the game. They make my job easy as captain. One more game to go, and we keep the same plans. Today was a restoration for us,” Rodrigues added.
Talking about the preparation for the final match, the captain is looking confident about facing RCB Women and says the mental work is more necessary than the physical.
“It will be super chill. Whoever wants to, can practice. But not sure many will. Just about staying mentally fresh, going out there on fifth and playing some good cricket,” she concluded.
