Cricket has seen plenty of teams that win everything. It has seen teams that never make finals. But the Delhi Capitals women’s team is different. Between 2023 and 2026, they made four straight WPL finals. They lost all four.
This is not a story about bad teams. This is a story about a team that keeps finding ways to fall apart on the last day. In the league stage, they were brilliant. When the trophy was on the table, something broke.
Meg Lanning led them to three finals. Jemimah Rodrigues took them to the fourth. Both captains faced the same ending. Empty hands. Questions that do not go away.
The first fall: When full-tosses became weapons
The first WPL final felt new for everyone. Delhi were the best team in the group stage. They won the toss against the Mumbai Indians at Brabourne Stadium. They chose to bat.
Things fell apart quickly. Not because of great bowling. Because of the strange bowling that worked.
Issy Wong bowled full-tosses. In normal cricket, full-tosses get hit for six. In this final, they got wickets. Shafali Verma caught at point. Alice Capsey caught at cover. Jemimah Rodrigues caught at point. All off high full-tosses that should have disappeared over the ropes.
Delhi crashed to 79 for 9. A last-wicket stand of 52 between Shikha Pandey and Radha Yadav made 131 look almost competitive. It was not. Nat Sciver-Brunt scored 60 not out. Mumbai won by seven wickets.
Meg Lanning sat in the dugout. She had won seven ICC trophies for Australia. She had never lost a final like this. In franchise cricket, she was learning that control is a different thing. You pick the players. You set the tone. But you cannot bat for them.
Behind her calm face, something was shifting. She was running 85 to 90 kilometres every week. Her weight dropped from 64 kg to 57 kg. She ate twice a day sometimes. Later, she would talk about depression and insomnia. About using running to escape her own thoughts.
The 2023 loss was the first crack. The captain was already breaking, and nobody knew.
The Second fall: Three balls that changed everything
The 2024 final was worse. It was at home, at Arun Jaitley Stadium. Delhi were the favourites again. Royal Challengers Bengaluru were the opponents.
For seven overs, it looked like the curse was dead. Shafali Verma and Meg Lanning made 64 runs without losing a wicket. The crowd was loud. The scoreboard was fast. Then Sophie Molineux bowled the eighth over.
First ball: Shafali caught, 44 gone.
Third ball: Jemimah Rodrigues out on the first ball.
Fourth ball: Alice Capsey out first ball.
64 for 0 became 64 for 3. The stadium went quiet. Delhi lost ten wickets for 49 runs after that. Shreyanka Patil took 4 for 12. Delhi made 113. RCB won easily.
The numbers tell part of the story. The real story is in the faces. Lanning sitting alone after the presentation. The serial winner who could not understand how this happened twice. She had built a culture of “ruthless mentality” but she was running on autopilot, disengaged from friends, family, everything except the next match and the next run.
The health battle she was fighting made the loss almost secondary. Almost.
The Third Fall: Eight Runs and the same question
The third final took them back to Brabourne. Mumbai Indians again. The pattern was now a headline. “Finals jinx.” “Chokers.” The words follow teams that keep losing when it counts.
Mumbai made 149 for 7. Harmanpreet Kaur scored 66 with her usual late hitting. Marizanne Kapp took 2 for 11, showing why she is one of the best all-rounders in the game.
Delhi’s chase followed the script. Lanning was bowled by Nat Sciver-Brunt for 13. Shafali LBW to Shabnim Ismail for 4. Jemimah Rodrigues made 30 but was caught and bowled by Amelia Kerr. Kapp hit 40 but got out at the wrong time.
They made 141 for 9. They lost by eight runs. Eight runs over four years of finals.
The question changed after this one. It was no longer about bad luck. It was about whether this team could handle pressure. Three finals. Three different ways to lose. The same empty feeling.
The fourth fall: 203 Runs and still not enough
Everything was different in 2026. Lanning was gone, playing for UP Warriorz. Jemimah Rodrigues was captain. The team lost three of their first four games. The final looked impossible.
Then they found something in Vadodara. They beat Gujarat Giants in the Eliminator. They were in the final again, this time against RCB at Vadodara.
This time, they batted first. This time, they made runs. Jemimah scored 57. Laura Wolvaardt made 44. Lizelle Lee hit 37. Chinelle Henry smashed 35 not out in 15 balls, including 24 in the 19th over. They made 203 for 4. The highest total in any WPL final.
For once, the batting had worked. For once, they had put the curse to bed.
RCB’s chase was ridiculous. Smriti Mandhana made 87. Georgia Voll made 79. They put on 165 for the second wicket, a record partnership. They chased 204 with two balls left.
The moment that will stay in memory came in the 19th over. RCB needed 13 from 8 balls. Radha Yadav hit the ball in the air off Chinelle Henry’s bowling. Minnu Mani settled under it. She dropped it. She dropped a catch that should have been taken. Radha hit two fours in the last over. RCB won.
The cameras followed Jemimah Rodrigues to the dressing room. This was not Lanning’s autopilot. This was heart on the outside. This was a captain who gave everything and still lost.
The 2026 final was the most painful because they did almost everything right. They made 203. They fought from 1-3 to the final. They still lost.
The People Inside the Jersey
Meg Lanning is 32 years old. She has won everything in international cricket. In the WPL, she lost three finals while fighting a health battle she kept private until 2024. She was running to escape her own mind. She was winning games while losing weight and sleep. The stoicism was not a strength. It was survival.
Jemimah Rodrigues is younger. She smiles easily. She connects with teammates. She showed that leadership can be emotional. She cried on television during the World Cup 2025. She did not hide.
Marizanne Kapp has won titles everywhere else. She has been a consistent performer in Delhi’s chaos. Even her best was not enough.
Shafali Verma comes from Meerut. She represents the Delhi-NCR region’s cricket culture. The new RRTS train line now brings fans from Meerut to Delhi in under an hour. The 2026 final was supposed to be the year the local hero won at home. It was not.
Sourav Ganguly is associated with the franchise. The man who changed Indian cricket’s mentality watches this team lose finals. He knows about pressure. He cannot fix this for them.
What It means to be Delhi Capitals
Only one other women’s franchise team has lost four finals: the Brisbane Heat. The Buffalo Bills lost four straight Super Bowls in the 1990s. Chennai Super Kings and Perth Scorchers made four straight finals in men’s leagues and actually won some.
Delhi is different. They lose each time. Wong’s full-tosses. Molineux’s triple strike. Eight runs short. A dropped catch after making 203.
They are like a team that paints the same picture of pain in different colours every year. The gallery is full. The trophy cabinet is empty.
\The 2026 final added personal pain. Jemimah Rodrigues and Smriti Mandhana are best friends. Mandhana made 87 to break Jemimah’s heart. Sport does this. It puts relationships on the field and makes one person win at the other’s cost.
Question for 2027
Delhi Capitals will play again in 2027. They will probably be good in the league stage. They will probably reach the final. The question is whether they can change what happens in those three hours.
The team has proven they can build a winning squad. They have not proven they can finish. The problem is not skill. Shafali Verma has a skill. Jemimah Rodrigues has a skill. Marizanne Kapp has skill. The problem is the moment when the game asks who wants it more.
Meg Lanning could not solve it while fighting her own battles. Jemimah Rodrigues could not solve it with passion alone. The next season will inherit the same challenge.
The fans from Delhi to Meerut will keep coming. The train line makes it easier. The heartbreak makes it harder. They watch a team that gives them everything except the one thing they want.
Four finals. Four losses. The numbers are simple. The story is not.