Royal Challengers Bengaluru landed here without some of its key players. That isn’t showing, though.
Smriti Mandhana’s women came up with a near perfect performance on Monday night to post their second win in as many matches in the third edition of the WPL. After bowling out Delhi Capitals for 141, RCB romped home with eight wickets and 3.4 overs to spare.
Smriti was indeed leading from the front. After marshalling the troops well in the field, she came up with a scintillating knock (81, 47b, 10x4, 3x6) to entertain another excellent crowd at the BCA Stadium.
The stylish left-hander played some pleasing strokes, such as a lovely pull off Marizanne Kapp, as she built a 107-run partnership for the opening wicket with Danni Wyatt-Hodge (42, 33b, 7x4). The duo batted Capitals out of the match.
Earlier, it was yet again Renuka Singh that led the RCB attack on what is fast turning out to be one of her favourite hunting grounds. She removed the dangerous Shafali Verma for a first-ball duck. The opener was a bit too ambitious: she came down the track and gave a comfortable catch to mid-off, failing to middle what was only the second ball of the match.
But a second-wicket stand of 59 between skipper Meg Lanning (17) and Jemimah Rodrigues (34, 22b, 4x4, 2x6) raised hopes for the Capitals. And Jemimah was looking in good touch too, with her nimble footwork and sweet timing, as DC raced to 55 for one in the PowerPlay.
But in the very next over a sharp piece of work behind the wicket by Richa Ghosh had a reverse-sweeping Jemimah stumped off Georgia Wareham.
The following over saw Lanning falling to a tumbling Ellyse Perry near the rope at the square-leg boundary.
From 60 for one, DC slumped to 105 for six. There was no redemption for Lanning’s women on this night.
Published - February 17, 2025 11:18 pm IST
