Meg Lanning's fireworks not enough as Ash Gardner's Giants win in WPL

Meg Lanning has roared back to the top of the all-time run-scoring charts in the Women’s Premier League as she became the second Australian luminary in a week to just miss out on the honour of becoming the WPL’s first centurion.

Four days after her old Aussie teammate Beth Mooney got stranded on an unbeaten 96, skipper Lanning fell agonisingly short of the elusive three-figure milestone on 92 in the final over of Delhi Capitals’ innings against Gujarat Giants in Lucknow on Friday.

But Lanning’s knock, which took her on to 939 career WPL runs and past another Aussie great Ellyse Perry in their fascinating duel to be the league’s most prolific batter, wasn’t enough to earn the Capitals a win as former Aussie teammates Mooney and Ash Gardner then helped steer Gujarat to a crucial five-wicket victory.

Delhi have already qualified as one of the three teams to reach the knock-out stages but Mooney’s 44 off 35 balls and Gardner’s cameo of 22 off 13 helped set up a win that moves the Giants into second place on the table behind the Capitals.

The two Australians provided the base before Gujarat’s ultimate hero turned out to be home favourite Harleen Deol, who played a match-winning hand of 70no off 49 balls as they chased down Delhi’s 5-177, reaching their target with three deliveries to spare.

It was a frustrating afternoon for 32-year-old former Australia captain Lanning, who had been hoping to nail down the win that would almost have sent Delhi directly into the tournament final.

Helped by early bits of fortune with a couple of inside edges and then getting a couple of lives, Lanning was still for the most part in quite magisterial mood as she smote 15 boundaries and got Delhi off to another blistering start in an opening partnership of 83 with Shafali Verma (40 off 27).

Lanning reached the final over of the innings, needing 16 to reach three figures and it looked on when she hit Deandra Dottin for two fours, leaving her with the task of hitting two more boundaries off the last two deliveries.

But trying to heave another huge hit over cow corner, the Barbadian’s slower ball castled her, leaving Lanning with the fifth-highest individual score in WPL annals off 57 balls.

Dottin then played a key role alongside Deol with her 24 off 10 balls that included two big sixes before she was brilliantly caught in the deep by a diving Jemimah Rodrigues off Jess Jonassen’s spin.

Jonassen’s two wickets moved her joint-top of the tournament wicket-taking table with 11 victims alongside her Delhi teammate Shikha Pandey, but the Aussie allrounder couldn’t stop Deol hitting her for a crucial first-ball boundary in the death over as she tried to protect the Capitals’ flimsy six-run lead.

Gardner, in a spectacular first season as Giants’ captain, again played her part with the bat, hammering her 17th six of the tournament, one more than even the big-hitting Shafali.