'DC Women on fire' - Netizens shower praise as skipper Meg Lanning and Shafali Verma aggregate record partnership

The Meg Lanning-led Delhi Capitals have made an amazing start to their Women’s Premier League (WPL) campaign against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai in just the second match of the inaugural premier women’s T20 tournament. 

The RCB skipper, Smriti Mandhana, got lucky, winning the toss, and decided to bowl first. The DC openers Lanning and Shafali Verma played brilliant knocks to give their side a whopping 162-run opening stand. The solid partnership provided Capitals just the kind of start that they were looking for.

The DC openers were unstoppable against a formidable pace attack of Royal Challengers Bangalore. India international Shafali managed 84 off 45 while skipper Lanning scored 72 off 43. Both batters were dismissed by Heather Knight in the 15th over of DC’s innings. 

During her 84-run knock, Shafali hit a total of ten fours and four sixes. Lanning, on the other hand, hit 14 fours in her innings. The RCB pace attack, which included Renuka Thakur, Megan Schutt, and Ellyse Perry had a hard time bowling against the ruthless opening pair. Shafali aggregated her runs at a staggering strike rate of 186.66. On the other hand, Lanning played at a strike rate of 167.44 and made sure that she made the RCB bowlers pay whenever they erred in terms of their line and length.

Following the departure of the opening duo, Jemimah Rodrigues (22*) and Marizanne Kapp (39*) came in for batting and guided DC to 223 runs. RCB looked under tremendous pressure from the time the opening pair of DC got set and they were taken to the cleaners.

The stand between Lanning and Shafali is the first century partnership of the ongoing Women's Premier League. Shafali was quick to dance down the track to RCB spinners and hammered them down the ground. Lanning too used all her experience and was able to pierce the gaps on the field and made life extremely difficult for the RCB skipper Smriti Mandhana and for her bowlers.

Here's how Twitter reacted to Lanning and Shafali's record partnership:

Delhi Capitals@DelhiCapitals

162 reasons to love our Opening pair 💪🔥 Well played you two ❤️ #YehHaiNayiDilli #CapitalsUniverse #RCBvDC #TATAWPL

04:45 PM · Mar 05, 2023

38531

CricTracker@Cricketracker

𝐃𝐞𝐣𝐚 𝐯𝐮 for Royal Challengers Bangalore in their season opener😐 #RCB #WPL2023 #DelhiCapitals

05:18 PM · Mar 05, 2023

37820

CricTracker@Cricketracker

Delhi were the first franchise to reach the century partnership in both IPL and WPL. 🌟IPL 2008 (Shikhar Dhawan and Gautam Gambhir) 🌟WPL 2023 (Meg Lanning and Shafali Verma) #DelhiDaredevils | #DelhiCapitals

05:02 PM · Mar 05, 2023

44427

Ayyappan@Ayyappan_1504

DC Womens on Fire 💥 #DCvsRCB #WPL2023

04:15 PM · Mar 05, 2023

1452

Rhitankar Bandyopadhyay@rhitankar8616

Shafali Verma becomes the FIRST ever teenager to score a fifty in the opening season of a franchise cricket tournament (men/women) in India. No teenager did it in the opening season of IPL. #WPL2023 #DCvsRCB

05:15 PM · Mar 05, 2023

153

KAPIL DEV TAMRAKAR 🇮🇳🚀@kapildevtamkr

Marvelous Batting by @DelhiCapitals . Unbelievable 84 Runs by @TheShafaliVerma . Hit Next level shot. Lanning 62 runs played well. Kapp played Great 39 runs. @DelhiCapitals W set the Highest total 223 of @wplt20. Will Great if RCB Chase the this total. #WPL2023 #DCvsRCB

05:04 PM · Mar 05, 2023

21

KAPIL DEV TAMRAKAR 🇮🇳🚀@kapildevtamkr

Marvelous Batting by @DelhiCapitals . Unbelievable 84 Runs by @TheShafaliVerma . Hit Next level shot. Lanning 62 runs played well. Kapp played Great 39 runs. @DelhiCapitals W set the Highest total 223 of @wplt20. Will Great if RCB Chase the this total. #WPL2023 #DCvsRCB

05:04 PM · Mar 05, 2023

21

Vishesh Tiwari@visheshtiwari_

Shafali, lanning, kapp, and Jemimah took "Play Bold" personally #WPL2023 #DCvsRCB #RCBvsDC @wplt20

05:18 PM · Mar 05, 2023

10

Pankaj Gupta@pankycricket

That's where the game sense comes in, #meglanning just got out, #ShefaliVarma should have given some time to @kappie777 to get settled.. Brilliant innings nonetheless, would love to see this kind of innings for #IndianCricketTeam 👏👏👏 #TATAWPL2023 #DCvsRCB

04:44 PM · Mar 05, 2023

50

CRICKBREEZ@avyaaaxx_05

What Batting Performance This is From Shafalii & Laning 🔥😍. DC - 163/2 Lanning 72(43) Shafalii 84(45) #WPL2023 #DCvsRCB

04:41 PM · Mar 05, 2023

00

cric monty@cricmonty

What a great innings by Mag lanning. #DC captain leading from the front. #RCBvDC #DCvsRCB #WIPL2023

04:42 PM · Mar 05, 2023

20