WPL 2024: The wait has ended for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). The much-loved, much-debated franchise featuring the biggest stars and glitziest commercial campaigns now has a title, after 16 years. RCB Women, on the other hand, won the Women’s Premier League in just their second season.
Anil Kumble failed to do it in 2009, Daniel Vettori in 2011, and Virat Kohli in 2016. On a starry Sunday night, in front of a raucous 29,000-strong crowd at the Ferozeshah Kotla dressed in Delhi Capitals blue, the unassuming Smriti Mandhana led RCB to their first title, defeating the home favourites, league leaders, and last year’s finalists with eight wickets and three balls remaining.
Delhi won the toss and elected to bat first setting their way of target and sending Shafali Verma and Meg Lanning on the crease to kick the inning off with some good running between the wickets and Verma was going for the first maximum of the Final in the second over followed by another in the fourth over where Lanning too got her bat in action with two back-to-back boundaries.
Shafali Verma ✅
— Women's Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) March 17, 2024
Jemimah Rodrigues ✅
Alice Capsey ✅
That was one incredible 3⃣-wicket over from Sophie Molineux 👏 👏
Watch 🎥 🔽
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And the powerplay came to an end at a hopping 61 for no loss with Verma’s second six in the fifth over followed by a boundary that saw one more four each from both the batters. But the eighth over was as shocking as a dreadful dream that succumbed three batters and the entire top order in the names of Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues and Alice Capsey that too on ducks. Things looked dooming for the Capitals as they lost the resisting Lanning at 23 off 23 in the 11th over.
The next couple of overs could only see a few singles until havoc struck for another time for Delhi Capitals as Marizanne Kapp and Jess Jonassen lost their wickets in the 14th over. Minnu Mani had only contributed a boundary before she finally got dismissed in the 15th over at the hands of Shreyanka Patil.
Radha Yadav walked in to hit two back-to-back boundaries in the 16th over followed by two more wickets in the 19th over in the names of Arundhati Reddy and Taniya Bhatia as the inning summed up at just 113 after getting bundled out and only adding a few singles in the late overs.
ALSO READ: WPL 2024: Ellyse Perry Helps RCB Beat Mumbai Indias In The Eliminator
Sophie Devine and Smriti Mandhana got the chase kicked off in style with Devine coming up with a boundary in the very first over. The next two overs were in silence with only a few singles but Mandhana got her first boundary in the fourth over’s first ball which was taken ahead with a boundary by Devine to freeze the scoreboard at just 25 at the end of the powerplay.
Devine was lifting the chase onto a greater height with some bashing hits to bring three boundaries and her first maximum in the seventh over which was contemplated well by the skipper with a boundary on the following over but Devine had to finally depart in the eighth over as Shikha Pandey dismissed her at an LBW at 32 off 27 balls. The runs paused for some time now until Ellyse Perry and Mandhana came up with a boundary each in the 13th over.
The Reactions 👏
— Women's Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) March 17, 2024
The Emotions ☺️
The Celebrations 🙌
They say what this triumph means for the Royal Challengers Bangalore 🏆
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Perry found another gap to hit a four in the 14th over before her skipper left for the pavilion in the 15th over by Mani. Richa Ghosh and Perry were there with their spirits on in the chase and managed to get a boundary each in the 17th and 18th over respectively along with the singles and rotation of strikes coming in valiantly even after the quick succession of fall of wickets.
And the WPL 2024 was all for RCB as Perry hit her final boundary in the 19th over followed by Ghosh’s winning boundary in the last over to go past at 115 for the loss of 2.
WPL 2024: Delhi Capitals vs Royal Challengers Bangalore Brief Scores
Delhi Capitals 113 in 18.3 overs (Shafali Varma 44; Shreyanka Patil 4-12, Sophie Molineux 3-20) lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore 115/2 in 19.3 overs (Ellyse Perry 35*, Sophie Devine 32; Shikha Pandey 1-11) by 8 wickets.
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