Delhi Capitals (DC) were busy bidding in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2025 mega auction opening round. Bidding for marquee players, DC missed out on White Ferns all-rounder Sophie Devine, their former captain Meg Lanning and star India all-rounder Deepti Sharma before roping in South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt for Rs 1.1 crore. Former India cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin lauded the Delhi-based franchise which has former captain Sourav Ganguly at the helm of things. Coincidentally, Wolvaardt lost World Cup final like Ganguly lost the Men's ODI World Cup 2003 final.
“Delhi Capitals having a good auction so far, bidding hard and chipping away at the other auction purses,” Ashwin wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).
“Tried to get Deepti, but ended up with a solid buy in Laura Wolvaardt.”
Wolvaardt had earlier played for Gujarat Giants. Interestingly, DC had roped in Lanning for Rs 1.1 crore in the inaugural mega auction as well.
Wolvaardt’s WPL and T20I numbers
Wolvaardt has often missed games due to injuries. From 13 games, she has scored 342 runs at an average of 26.30 and strike rate of 125.73. She has three fifties in her WPL career so far.
In T20Is, she has scored 2,088 runs from 77 innings at an average of 34.80 and strike rate of 115.10. She has scored a century and 12 fifties in the format.
Wolvaardt's phenomenal numbers in World Cup
From nine innings, she led her team from the front, scoring 571 runs at an average of 71.38, including a century in the semifinal and the final.
Big misses for Delhi Capitals
DC seemed happy when noone was bidding for World Cup 2025 ‘Player of the series’ Deepti. However, UP Warriorz exercised their Right to Match (RTM) card. DC raised the bid to Rs 3.2 crore and UP Warriorz matched. it.
Later, they wanted to get back Lanning who led them to three consecutive WPL finals. UP Warriorz beat them again, roping in Lanning for Rs 1.9 crore.
Players Delhi Capitals retained before the mega auction
Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Annabelle Sutherland, Marizanne Kapp, Niki Prasad.