WPL24 : DC ends RCB's winning run with emphatic victory despite Mandhana's fighting knock

 

Royal Challengers Bangalore's winning streak in the Women's Premier League 2024 has stopped.  RCB lost by 25 runs against a high quality  Delhi Capitals on their home ground.  Delhi Capitals women's team, playing first after losing the toss, made a challenging score of 194 runs for five wickets.  In reply, Smriti Mandhana gave a stormy start to Bengaluru.  She scored her first ever fifty in the WPL league.  Even after this the team could score only 169 runs for 9 wickets.

 Shefali Verma played a belligerent inning of 50 runs for Delhi.  Facing 31 balls, she hit three fours and four stunning sixes during her innings.  After the early dismissal of captain Meg Lanning, she along with Alice Capsey (46 runs) produced an explosive partnership of 82 runs for the second wicket.  Marijanne Kapp scored a rapid 32 runs in 16 balls with two fours and three sixes and Jess Jonassen scored a snashing unbeaten 36 runs in 16 balls with four fours and two sixes.  Both of them made a partnership of 58 runs for the fifth wicket.  Royal Challengers Bangalore had to rest all-rounder Ellyse Perry due to illness and replaced her with Nadine de Klerk.

 When Shefali was on the score of two runs, Shreyanka Patil gave her life on the ball of fast bowler Renuka Singh.  Shefali hit a four and a six on consecutive balls off left-arm spinner Sophie Molineux.  Capsey's shot selection was excellent, she scored runs with reverse sweep and scoop shot.  Shefali completed her second half-century this season by hitting a six over off-spinner Shreyanka at mid-wicket.  But she was out on the very next ball.  While trying to play a high shot, she was caught by Georgia Wareham at mid-wicket.

 De Klerk then dismissed Capsey with a brilliant yorker and Jemimah Rodrigues was out without adding a single run.  But Kapp and Jonassen faced the Royal Challengers Bangalore bowlers bravely from the 14th to the 18th over and helped the team reach a good score.

Mandhana played a dazzling innings of 74 runs in 43 balls which included 10 fours and three sixes, but despite her half-century, Royal Challengers Bangalore could only score 169 runs for nine wickets.  In this way, the winning streak of RCB, which had won the first two matches, was broken.  Apart from Mandhana, other batsmen could not play big innings despite good starts.  Mandhana and Sophie Devine (23 runs) gave a good start to the team by scripting a partnership of 77 runs for the first wicket, due to which the target did not look very big.

 This partnership broke when Devine was out in the ninth over, after which Mandhana added 45 runs with Meghana. Mandhana got most of her runs through leg side in this innings but finally she was bowled by Kapp.  Wicketkeeper batsman Richa Ghosh (13 balls, 19 runs, two sixes) started well, but she was dismissed  by Marizanne Kapp (2 wickets for 35 runs).  Ghosh raised hopes by hitting two consecutive sixes but was out on the first ball of the 15th over, when the score was 138 runs for three wickets.  After this the team lost six wickets within 30 runs. Meghana (36) could not produce the attacking batting that was needed to win the match as the others collapsed .

  Left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen took three wickets for 21 runs and Arundhati Reddy took two wickets.  Kapp for her all round show was the player of the match.