On Wednesday, the Gujarat Giants overcame their four-match losing record with a brilliant 19-run victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore, their first win of the ongoing Women’s Premier League 2024 (WPL 2024) in Delhi. Laura Wolvaardt and the graceful Beth Mooney shone brightly as the Gujarat Giants delivered a commanding performance, setting a difficult target of 199 for 5 against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in a Women’s Premier League match in Delhi.
Gujarat Giants won the toss and elected to bat first inviting the bowling attack kicked off by Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Sophie Devine, but Laura Wolvaardt and Beth Mooney started the first over with two boundaries from the bat of Wolvaardt followed by Mooney’s boundary in the second over. The third over saw a boundary each from both the openers. After Wolvaardt’s two boundaries in the fifth over, the powerplay summed up with five singles amounting to the scoreboard at 59.
Mooney kept her bat swinging smoothly as she smashed two back-to-back boundaries in the eighth over which was contemplated well by Wolvaardt with her three consecutive boundaries in the tenth over along with two more in the 12th over followed by one from Mooney in the same over. And the 140-run giant opening stand finally came to an end as Wolvaardt met her dismissal in the 13th over with a run-out.
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Crisp and powerful! 🔥
— Women's Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) March 6, 2024
The #GG openers are dealing in boundaries in Delhi! 🤝
Live 💻📱https://t.co/W8mqrR94WB#TATAWPL | #GGvRCB pic.twitter.com/qIUOlt6yPo
Mooney, from the other end, kept the scoreboard soaring as high as the first maximum from her bat in the 16th over followed by a boundary more in the same over. The seventeenth over too saw a boundary from Mooney and one more in the 19th over before the new down Phoebe Litchfield met her run-out only after hitting a final boundary which was followed by Ashleigh Gardner’s golden duck in the same over.
The high-scoring inning finally saw the last over contained two wickets in the name of Dayalan Hemalatha and Veda Krishnamurthy mingled with two singles and a double to freeze the scoreboard at 199 for the loss of 5.
Starting on a gigantic chase, Smriti Mandhana and Sabbhineni Meghana disappointingly bring up just two runs on the board in the first over. Except bye in the second over that brought a four, the second over only summed up 7 runs. And there went Mandhana with the first and the second maximum in the third over followed by a boundary in the same over. She managed to bring another four in the fourth over before finally departing early in the fifth over for 24 off 16 balls.
Dangerous Devine departs 😲
— Women's Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) March 6, 2024
Tanuja Kanwer with the timber strike 😎
Richa Ghosh joins Ellyse Perry in the middle as #RCB need 104 off 42!
Live 💻📱https://t.co/W8mqrR94WB#TATAWPL | #GGvRCB pic.twitter.com/CI7JFC6ntt
The powerplay came to an end with a boundary from the bat of Ellyse Perry to put the score at 39 for the loss of 1. That too saw an unfortunate dismissal of Sabbhineni Meghana getting run out in the seventh over at just 4. Sophie Devine then tried to pull the things off with her first maximum in the eighth over and her second in the following over which was contemplated well by Perry in the same over with a boundary. And Devine had to finally depart in the 11th over after only hitting another boundary in the tenth over.
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Richa Ghosh and Perry tried to boost some energy into the chase as Perry moved ahead with a boundary in the 12th over followed by Ghosh’s first maximum in the 13th over. But Perry finally had to depart in the 14th over’s first delivery bowled by Kathryn Bryce which was followed by Georgia Wareham’s and Ghosh’s boundary in the same over. And that pumped the scoreboard as Ghosh smashed two boundaries along with one from Wareham in the 15th over.
Delhi brings 𝙙𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 for the Gujarat Giants 😃👏#RCB came close to the target but it's #GG who register their first win of the season 🙌
— Women's Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) March 6, 2024
Scorecard 💻📱https://t.co/W8mqrR94WB#TATAWPL | #GGvRCB | @Giant_Cricket pic.twitter.com/3B5r6VQpNP
And Ghosh finally met her dismissal in the 16th over after hitting her last boundary followed by one from Wareham. And there went Wareham in her arms to hit another maximum in the 17th over followed by a four in the same over. The 18th over saw a boundary from Wareham which she further took into the 19th over which started with a maximum.
It was followed by a boundary that saw Sophie Molineux’s run-out on the third ball of the 19th over and another down in the name of Wareham at 48 which finally saw an end along with the chase with Ekta Bisht’s only and the RCB’s last maximum that was followed by her run-out on the last ball of the twentieth over that obstructed RCB at 180 for the loss of 8.
WPL 2024: Gujarat Giants vs Royal Challengers Bangalore Brief Scores
Gujarat Giants 199/5 in 20 overs (Beth Mooney 85*, Laura Wolvaardt 76; Sophie Molineux 1-32) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 180/8 in 20 overs (Georgia Wareham 48, Richa Ghosh 30; Ashleigh Gardner 2-23) by 19 runs.
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