Jess Jonassen ends big week by upstaging Perry in WPL
The spinning allrounder, who's been surplus to requirements for Australia over the past year, appears to be reinventing herself, having been shoved up the batting order to No.3 in Delhi's ever-improving push for the title.
On Saturday, she cracked an unbeaten 61 not out at first drop as the Capitals booked their place in the knockout stages of the tournament with a second-straight nine-wicket win in successive days, this time over champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
Footwork on point 🔥Jess Jonassen displays her fine form with a lovely strike! 🚀Updates ▶️ https://t.co/pTL9a8wDJL#TATAWPL | #RCBvDC | @DelhiCapitals pic.twitter.com/mwElZkfaQF
— Women's Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) March 1, 2025
On Tuesday, the rejuvenated Jonassen had made exactly the same score in the win over Gujarat and on Friday, had taken the key wickets in her 3-25 which sank Mumbai, both displays winning her the player-of-the-match award.
This time, she probably would have made it a hat-trick if not for the blistering performance by her batting partner Shafali Verma, who cracked a spectacular unbeaten 80 off 43 balls as they shared an unbeaten second-wicket stand of 146.
The Ellyse Perry-inspired champions, RCB, once again left their fans feeling short-changed with a fourth successive home defeat in Bengaluru.
Not that Perry let them down. As usual, the allrounder did her brilliant best to keep the faithful happy at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium after RCB has been inserted by Delhi skipper Meg Lanning, as she proved the mainstay of their 5-147 with an unbeaten 60 off 47 balls, featuring three sixes and three fours.
Perry is now the holder of the orange cap as the season's top scorer with 295 runs.
It was also her record-equalling eighth WPL half-century, as she went past Lanning in their continuing ding-dong battle to be the highest all-time run-scorer in the competition.
She now has 895, 48 more than Lanning, who had a rare failure in reply when who else but Perry should leap up to dismiss her for just two with a sharp catch at mid-on off Renuka Singh.
The Points Table leader add the '𝙌' against them 👀The Meg Lanning-led Delhi Capitals continue their winning streak 👏Predict the other 2️⃣ teams for the playoffs ✍#TATAWPL | @DelhiCapitals pic.twitter.com/7yYk2VNzdg
— Women's Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) March 1, 2025
But Jonassen and Shafali made light work of the chase, with the Australian left-hander, who'd been batting in the lower middle-order for most of the tournament, evidently relishing the move up the order as she bashed nine fours and a six off the 38 balls she faced.
"Jess has done an excellent job, came in and played beautifully," said Lanning, whose side will definitely be in the playoffs after they moved on to 10 points, four clear of the chasing pack.
As for Jonassen now nailing down her elevated place in the order, Lanning smiled: "She's certainly keeping her hand up to keep doing it."
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