Bowling the last over of the PowerPlay, Sneh Rana attempted an audacious plan. She went round the wicket with her off breaks to bet against Sophie Devine's powerful swinging arc.

It was an attempt to halt Devine's fledgling inning. Even though she had smashed her way to 33 off 21 balls by then, 11 of those runs had come courtesy misfields by the Delhi Capitals players, including a dropped catch.

That bet to test Devine's strength was certainly against the odds, even if there were two fielders placed in the deep. Even after being clubbed for two boundaries and a six, Rana persisted with the plan. For the fourth time in the over, Devine took the bait, and slogged the next over the cow corner for another six to bring up her half-century.

With ample time for the fielders to go fetch the ball, Beth Mooney from the other end came to congratulate her senior partner. Lizelle Lee, who was witnessing the carnage from behind the stumps, ran up to Rana, put her arm around her shoulder and got into a lengthy monologue. Rana, with her head down keenly listened to the words of advice from the veteran. By then, Rana's record was at stake - the 28 runs she had smashed off Deepti Sharma last season (the most in an over in WPL) was at the risk of being broken, incidentally off her own bowling.

The next delivery, she darted one in, and Devine repeated the slog sweep with the same result. This time, Lee just stood at her spot without uttering a word, allowing skipper Jemimah Rodrigues to cheer up the bowler.

Lee may only be two games old in the WPL, but she has seen enough of Devine, and the destructive abilities of the New Zealand batter, who much like her fashioned power-hitting in the women's game before it became the norm. In South African colours, Lee has seen Devine explode from behind the wickets many times: at Taunton and Bristol in 2018, and then from other parts of the ground in four successive games in 2020, in Mount Maunganui, Hamilton and Wellington. She knows very well that when it is Sophie Devine's hour in the middle, she can be destructive - and more importantly, unstoppable.

Resetting her wicketkeeping gloves, Lee took position again. This time, Devine slog swept a flighted full toss over the same region for her fourth consecutive six of the over. Rana's record was broken, and reseized by Devine who had previously held the same in the competition, with her 25-run blast against Tanuja Kanwar, who was wearing the Gujarat Giants colours that day.

There were more tournament records that tumbled within the powerplay itself. Having notched up 65 runs, it was the most by a batter in this period, and with 80 runs on the board, it was the second most amassed by a team in the powerplay.

It wasn't just Rana, who was in the centre of the attack. Devine had straight-lofted Nandni Sharma down the ground for a six, and flexed her power arc again against Sree Charani.

Even as it all started to seem an extended range-hitting session in the middle, there was more to that innings by Devine. The exhibition of dominance neatly hid the finer aspects of her game - the quick running between the wickets and the presence of mind to pinch the extra run, which almost came instinctively with Beth Mooney, a player with whom she has shared a great deal of batting time.

With all the specialists getting taken apart, Jemimah threw the ball to Shafali in hope. Even that didn't materialise into anything significant, and Giants found themselves comfortably placed at 122/1 at the halfway mark.

In a bid to change the pace, she brought Nandni Sharma back into the attack, which ended the near-hour long assault. Devine failed to pick up a back-of-the-hand slower ball and miscued the swing to short fine leg to depart nine short of a century. Nandni confessed that there were ample plans in place for Devine, but clearly not many of those brought the desired rewards around. Rodrigues, the DC skipper, admitted graciously at the end of the game, "It's tough to bowl when Sophie Devine is in such great form."

Despite her dismissal, at 126 for 2 in the 11th over, the platform was well set for Giants' lengthy batting line-up to attack freely. However, barring Ash Gardner, none could take advantage of that. In their bid to keep hitting the big shots, they repeatedly holed out to the long on fielder, where three catches were taken. Some miscued and some chipped balls to other parts as the rest of the line-up collapsed in a heap. Nandni, playing only her second WPL game - possibly buoyed after dismissing Devine - wrapped up Giants' innings with a hat-trick, and a fifer.

Limiting Giants to 209 ensured that the game was left wide open. And then, Lizelle Lee, watching all the action from behind the stumps, took over with the bat. After her innovative, destructive and well-paced 54-ball 86, Laura Wolvaardt cut loose with a 38-ball 77.

On a day when three bonafide legends and a talented newcomer made their presence felt on the game, it was down to Sophie again to control the outcome of the contest, defending six off the last over in a contest where both teams had muscled 200-plus totals.

Five tidy deliveries, which included the dismissals of the rampaging Wolvaardt and Rodrigues had brought down the equation to 5 off the last ball. Facing her again was Rana, this time with the bat, and enough motivation to have the last laugh.

The climax, unfortunately, wasn't as dramatic. Rana swung low and swiped, and missed the connection.

It was a game that packaged all-round brilliance. Beyond the obvious star performers stood the small contributors; Sree Charani holding her nerves in a crucial phase, Rajeshwari Gayakwad rolling back the clock to control DC in the chase, Gardner's brief blitz, Anushka Sharma's diving effort at the boundary to save a catch - the noteworthy performances were plenty. But eventually it all boiled down to Devine's entertaining performance that separated the two teams in this Sunday night last-ball thriller.

That one hour of Devine's carnage with the bat was enough to keep Giants in the hunt for most of the game. For whatever worries that were left to be taken care of, Devine intervened with the ball. The collective brilliance of Lee, Wolvaardt and Nandni didn't prove enough to outdo Sophie on her day.