Mumbai Indians’ 3 key success factors in 2023’s WPL final

In this article, we will discuss Mumbai Indians’ 3 key success factors in 2023’s WPL final. The Mumbai Indians (MI) have put on a fairly impressive all-around cricketing performance to start the inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL) season.

The Harmanpreet Kaur-led team battled to five straight victories before a small slip-up caused them to finish in second position on the points chart. As expected, MI breezed through the Eliminator to advance to the WPL championship.

Notwithstanding several flaws that surfaced later in the league stage, MI had an advantage over the other franchises in a number of areas throughout the season. The top three reasons why MI easily advanced to the WPL 2023 championship are listed below.

Mumbai Indians’ 3 key success factors in 2023’s WPL final

#1 Bowling combination of strength and experience

While MI has always had great batting throughout the season, they have absolutely excelled with the ball.

Sciver-Brunt, Ishaque, Matthews, Kerr, and Wong are Mumbai’s five primary bowlers, and none of them have allowed more than seven runs per over. Four out of the top five wicket-takers in the competition are MI players, demonstrating how deadly their bowlers have been.

Many bowlers, including Harmanpreet, Amanjot, Vastrakar, and Jintimani Kalita, are included in MI’s best XI. Yet, considering the performances of their key bowlers, who include two right-arm quicks and three distinct types of spin, the Mumbai-based team has not needed to worry about this area.

#2 Middle-order contributions

West Indian all-rounder Hayley Matthews has taken on a few more risks to give MI strong starts while Yastika Bhatia has mainly served as an anchor at the top of the order. However, the more aggressive batting style used by English all-rounder Natalie Sciver-Brunt and team captain Harmanpreet Kaur has overshadowed the pair’s consistent efforts with the bat.

Kaur and Sciver-Brunt have rescued their team from precarious situations by scoring runs at a strike rate of over 140 and averaging over 40. Amelia Kerr, Issy Wong, and Pooja Vastrakar have all added helpful contributions where they were needed.

Given the calibre of the work done by the top and middle order, players like Amanjot Kaur and Humaira Kazi further down the batting order have typically had nothing to do.

#3 Saika Ishaque bowls with consistency

Uncapped Indian talent has finding it difficult to break through and compete with foreign star power in WPL 2023, which is somewhat discouraging. Saika Ishaque, a left-arm spinner who is presently second on the Purple Cap leaderboard after taking an astonishing 12 wickets in her first four WPL games, is an exception to this tendency.

Bengal-born, the 27-year-old regularly traps batsmen in front of the stumps thanks to her velocity and control. Ishaque has the best strike rate (12.33) and second-best average (14.40) among bowlers who have thrown more than 15 overs in the league.

Ishaque failed to pick up a wicket in both games MI lost, underscoring her significance to the group.