WPL, DC vs MI | Twitter in awe of Saika Ishaque as she can’t help herself from taking wickets for fun
Arguably, the best part of any elite franchise league is watching uncapped talents playing significant roles for their respective franchises. Saika Ishaque has emerged as one such player in the Women's Premier League and she keeps dominating the opponent even against the star-studded Delhi Capitals.
Many expected the Women’s Premier League (WPL) fixture between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals to be a thrilling affair, given the fact that both sides began the competition with resounding back-to-back victories. However, on Thursday, it did not happen in reality as Meg Lanning’s DC felt Harmanpreet Kaur’s MI were too hot to handle while batting. At the end of 14 overs, DC were left reeling at 85/7, with uncapped Indian Saika Ishaque doing the most damage for MI, claiming 3/13 after her three overs.
Ishaque, aged 27 from West Bengal, immediately made an impact when Kaur asked her to bowl the second over of the innings. She cleaned up the dangerous Shafali Verma, who played aggressively in the opening two fixtures. Then during the 13th over when Kaur brought her into the attack again, she reaped rich rewards with a double blow, comprising the wickets of Lanning and Jemimah Rodrigues.
Until their dismissals, both Lanning and Rodrigues played beautifully to help DC recover from 31/3. However, Ishaque gave MI the much-important breakthrough by clean-bowling Rodrigues with her second ball of the over, which was a skidder. Three balls later, Lanning departed as well after hitting straight to Kaur at short extra cover.
Twitterati were delighted to see the progress of Ishaque, who is currently leading the wicket-takers chart with nine prized scalps.
No clue at all!
— WPL MAHARASTRA (@WMaharastra) March 9, 2023
Danger woman gone
— WPL MAHARASTRA (@WMaharastra) March 9, 2023
Star dismissal
Some of the batters Saika Ishaque has dismissed in the last five days
— Mohit Shah (@mohit_shah17) March 9, 2023
Sophie Devine
Shafali Verma
Jemimah Rodrigues
Meg Lanning
What a quartet#WPL2023
Only picking the best
Saika Ishaque is so good…every match she has been picking up the best @mipaltan #WPL2023
— Samip Rajguru (@samiprajguru) March 9, 2023
Star in making!
Star in the making Saika Ishaque! #WPL2023
— Soorya Sesha (@sooryasesha7) March 9, 2023
They never performed!
Jadeja And Axar Patel Never Performed Like Saika Ishaque In T20s. #DCvMI #WPL2023
— Oggy 💙 (@SirOggyBilla) March 9, 2023
India needs
saika ishaque doing well just when india needs a left arm spinner🤌
— ee saala cup namde merchant (@fcharmanpreet) March 9, 2023
Reason why best franchise
Mumbai Indians got Haley Matthews for a base price of 40 Lakhs & Saika Ishaque for a base price of 10 Lakhs & now they are performing consistently for us. Reason why,
— Un-Lucky (@Luckyytweets) March 9, 2023
MI IS THE BEST FRANCHISE. 💙💙
Future of women's cricket
Saika Ishaque - The future of Indian women's cricket. She is just amazing in this WPL so far.
— CricketMAN2 (@ImTanujSingh) March 9, 2023
Nightmare for Aussie!
HARMAN CATCHES MEG LANNING OFF SAIKA ISHAQUE 😭
— Smriti | Ash Gardner fan account (@klausterphonic) March 9, 2023
Tears in my eyes, this team is a nightmare for the Australians.#WPL2023 #DCvMI pic.twitter.com/uLznp2dhLG