This was a complete team effort: Shikkha Pandey

The Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians were once again involved in a thriller, in similar fashion to last year's tournament opener where Sajana Sajeevan hit a last-ball six to seal a victory for Mumbai Indians. However, this time around, it was the Delhi Capitals who were on the right side of the result after Arundhati Reddy ran two of the final delivery to grab the two points.

And Shikkha Pandey, the fast-bowler for the Capitals echoed the same feeling. She also felt Niki Prasad (35 off 33) performed exceptionally on debut to take the Capitals close to the finish line before Reddy ran the final two, labelling it a complete 'team effort'.

"Last time the tournament opener was pretty much a similar game, it's just that we ended up on the wrong side of the result and this time we are on the right side of the result but the thing that's really heartening is we are still not full strength and we still have some superstars who couldn't play today.

"This is really nice also for Niki playing her first high-intensity game for her to take us through at least take us closer. It was really nice. It was probably, I can call this a complete team effort."

Before the nail-biting action unfolded, it was Pandey who at the start of the game bowled an excellent spell (2 for 14) striking early with the new-ball including the powerful Hayley Matthews for a duck. She mentioned that due to the nature of the wicket being a flat one, she had to be on the money straight away.

"Oh I had fun. I knew that whatever magic I had to do with the new ball had to be done in the first few overs because we followed the game last night and it's gonna be a flat wicket so I was just trying to take wickets first up, and yeah worked today. Might not work on many other days but I'm happy to have contributed."

Pandey also mentioned that she had been working to swing the ball off her hand from the outset, and she was happy to see the efforts pay off.

"Like I said, a huge part of it is to get wickets first up and with the new ball the ball has to swing. I kind of tell myself that I should be able to swing the ball off the hand as well so that's something that I've been working on, so yeah that was really nice."

Charlotte Edwards, the coach of the Mumbai Indians, was proud of her group to see them not throw in the towel after Shafali Varma lit up the Kotambi Stadium with an 18-ball 43 as the Capitals raced away in the PowerPlay.

"Looking at our bowling, our bowling options, I think, you know, Shafali played brilliantly and I think that happens in T20 cricket and that's what I was most proud of the group, how we responded. We didn't just give up. You know, we kept coming hard. We kept being aggressive with the ball."

MI collapsed from 105 for 2 to 164 all-out after a strong partnership by Harmanpreet Kaur and Nat-Sciver Brunt of 73 runs. They were bowled out in less than their allotted overs but Edwards felt it wasn't a concern for her yet. It also led to MI not scoring at least par on a very good wicket, and Edwards felt the run-out of Amelia Kerr at the bowler's end was the turning point of the game.

"I think it's actually really hard when you follow a big partnership like Harman and Nat, they were making it look so easy, weren't they, and I think potentially, you know, that didn't help.

"I think the run out of Amelia Kerr was massive in this game. I think we were going really well, she's got a really calm head and she would have got us up to that sort of 180 plus, and allowed Nat to play more freely. Obviously towards the end there, Nat had to farm the strike and, you know, we had a couple of casualties there, run out. So yeah, not batting our overs out is obviously an issue, but no, it's certainly not a concern for me."