Asha Sobhana’s five-wicket haul helped Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) win their first match of the Women’s Premier League 2024 (WPL 2024) against UP Warriorz. At the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday, Smriti Mandhana’s RCB beat Alyssa Healey’s Warriorz by two runs in a last-ball thriller.
UP Warriorz won the toss and elected to bowl first. After a disappointing first season, RCB were up on their first game of the tournament against Warriorz and there were Sophie Devine and Smriti Mandhana. After a silent first over, it was Mandhana who took the responsibility to spearhead the inning with the first maximum of the match followed by a boundary in the second over.
Although the match started on a positive note, but Devine departed much earlier in the game as Grace Harris got her to leg before wicket. Sabbhineni Meghana was the new down with a confident stride bringing up her first in the third over and three back-to-back boundaries in the fifth over but that too was not more as Mandhana had to walk back to the dugout in the sixth over.
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Ellyse Perry too got succumbed to Sophie Ecclestone’s delivery in the eighth over. Despite being a valuable wicket loss, Meghana and Richa Ghosh managed superbly to take charge and bring as many boundaries and runs as possible on the board. With incessant boundaries by both the batters and timely rotation of strikes, RCB were at 125 after 16 overs but the inning saw two back-to-back fall of wickets in the 17th over in the names of Meghana (53 off 44) and Georgia Wareham (0).
THREE wickets in an over 🤯
Triple treat from Asha Shobana and this match is heading down to the wire 💥
Match Centre 💻📱 https://t.co/kIBDr0FhM4#TATAWPL | #RCBvUPW pic.twitter.com/IQ469MGFPC
— Women's Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) February 24, 2024
Although there were two big losses in succession for RCB, but Richa tried to pull the runs off from her bat with three boundaries, but she too had to finally depart in the 19th over at a massive knock of 62 off 37. And there was the last over that concluded with Sophie Molineux’s boundary and Shreyanka Patil’s summarizing maximum on the last ball to freeze the scoreboard at a defendable 157 for the loss of 6.
Vrinda Dinesh and Alyssa Healy walked out valiantly into the crease to give a smooth start to the chase with Vrinda’s first boundary in the very first over by Renuka Singh. But it was an early shock for UP Warriorz with Healy’s dismissal in the second over only. Tahlia McGrath, the new down was trying swift enough to get partner with Vrinda in collecting runs through boundaries and singles until her first and her team’s first maximum came in the seventh over.
But the nightmare stuck for Warriorz with both of their consecutive and quick dismissals in the 9th over. Grace Harris and Shweta Sehrawat were fresh down in the chase with confident bats and smash boosted enough to get Harris two fours along with a maximum and Sehrawat a boundary too in the 11th over. The scoreboard was soaring faster than usual for Warriorz as both the batters were up on the RCB attack getting one more maximum each in their names.
Two days already into #TATAWPL 2024 and we have witnessed back to back final-ball thrillers! 🔥
The packed house in Bengaluru celebrates @RCBTweets' inaugural win of the season 🥳
Match Centre 💻📱 https://t.co/kIBDr0FhM4#TATAWPL | #RCBvUPW pic.twitter.com/AAEtmoAadW
— Women's Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) February 24, 2024
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But the day had its own fray for Warriorz as both Sehrawat and Harris had to depart in the same 17th over followed by Kiran Navgire as Sobhana Asha brought the much-awaited match-turning breakthrough for her team.
Owing to the chase still on the track, Deepti Sharma and Poonam Khemnar contributed all their way with a couple of boundaries each before the latter got succumbed to Wareham in the 19th over. And the last over bowled tight by Molineux turned the tables to RCB’s side despite Deepti’s last ball boundary that ended up at 155 for Warriorz at the loss of 7.
Brief Scores: RCB vs UP Warriorz Match 2
Royal Challengers Bangalore 157/6 in 20 overs (Richa Ghosh 62, S Meghana 53; Rajeshwari gayakwad 2-24) beat UP Warriorz 155/7 in 20 overs (Grace Harris 38, Shweta Sehrawat 31; S Asha 5-22) by 2 runs.
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