On Tuesday, Smriti Mandhana’s Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) defeated Gujarat Giants by eight wickets and that too with 45 balls remaining in the Women’s Premier League 2024 (WPL 2024). This victory gives RCB back-to-back wins in their opening two matches of the season.
RCB won the toss and as a massive cheer went around the stadium Smriti Mandhana chose to bowl first. Beth Mooney and Harleen Deol walked down the crease to commence the game on a positive note with Mooney coming up with a boundary in the first over bowled by Renuka Singh but she could only continue till one more boundary in the second over followed by her dismissal on the third ball of the same over.
Through the gates 🔥🔥
— Women's Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) February 27, 2024
Renuka Singh gets the Chinnaswamy crowd going 🤩
Gujarat Giants lose Captain Beth Mooney.
Match Centre 💻📱 https://t.co/wV0BEgbN42#TATAWPL | #RCBvGG | @RCBTweets pic.twitter.com/vdw6vQpFZp
Singh and Sophie Devine had a tight attack with the ball as runs were not coming as expected by Phoebe Litchfield and Deol but owing to the last over of the powerplay, both the batters took the chance of hitting three boundaries, two in Deol’s name and the other one in Litchfield’s but the later too had to depart early on the second ball of the seventh over.
ALSO READ: WPL 2024: Gujarat Giants (GG) – SWOT Analysis
New down Veda Krishnamurthy tried to uplift the inning for her Gujarat Giants with her massive stroke that resulted in the first maximum of the match in the eighth over, but she had an unfortunate dismissal in the eleventh over as Sophie Molineux brought the breakthrough for her team, picking up Deol in the same over only after she hit her last four of the inning.
TIMBER!
— Women's Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) February 27, 2024
Wicket number 2⃣ for Sophie Molineux 💪#GG 74/6 in the 17th over.
Match Centre 💻📱 https://t.co/wV0BEgckTA#TATAWPL | #RCBvGG pic.twitter.com/vmMbqbDl4B
Ashleigh Gardner and Dayalan Hemalatha were the fresh down on the crease where the latter put some effort to bring runs on the board with two strokes of boundaries, one in the fourteenth and another in the fifteenth before she met her dismissal in the very next over as Georgia Wareham got the breakthrough followed by Molineux picking up Kathryn Bryce’s wicket in the 17th over.
Sneh Rana and Hemalatha tried with much power to add some more runs to the board with the former scoring a couple of boundaries and the latter contributing with the second maximum of the inning before Rana succumbed to Molineux’s delivery in the 19th over. And the inning finally came to a disappointing end but with a fighting last over that brought thee singles and two triples to freeze the scoreboard at 107 for the loss of 7.
ALSO READ: WPL 2024: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) – SWOT Analysis
Mandhana started the chase on a ballistic note with the first boundary on the very first ball of the inning and the other two later in the same over. From the other end, Sophie Devine too tried to some runs which resulted in a boundary in the second over but RCB got her first jolt in the fourth over as Devine had to depart early at just 6 off 6 balls.
Sabbhineni Meghana is in fabulous touch ✨
— Women's Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) February 27, 2024
She remains unbeaten as #RCB win by 8 wickets!
Match Centre 💻📱 https://t.co/wV0BEgckTA#TATAWPL | #RCBvGG pic.twitter.com/FIlqsdSca1
New down Sabbhineni Meghana too started clearing the fences from the beginning bringing up two boundaries in the fifth over. And then there was Mandhana right out of the screws in the seventh over. Meghana too contemplated Mandhana with a couple of boundaries but the blistering Mandhana met her unfortunate dismissal in the 9th over only after collecting one more boundary on the last ball of the 8th over.
By the time a confident Ellyse Perry came into play with a boundary on her very first ball, Meghana was tight into her boots already as she hooked her first six of the match confirming RCB’s second win of the tournament. And there was Perry as the topping to the victory as she chipped the Giants off with two boundaries thus concluding an 8-wicket win.
Brief scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Gujarat Giants Match 5
Gujarat Giants 107/7 in 20 overs (D Hemalatha 31*, Harleen Deol 21; Sophie Molineux 3-25, Renuka Thakur 2-14) lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore 110/2 in 12.3 overs (Smriti Mandhana 43, S Meghana 36*, Ellyse Perry 23*) by 8 wickets.
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