In a tense Women's Premier League (WPL) 2024 Final, first-time finalists Royal Challengers Bangalore Women beat last season's runner-ups Delhi Capitals Women by eight wickets at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Sunday. (As It Happened | Cricket News)
Richa Ghosh and Ellyse Perry kept their cool and took the game to the end. With 11 needed in the last two overs, only six came in the 19th over including a boundary by Perry. Arundhati Reddy was given the ball in the last over to defend five runs, but both set batters finished the game with three balls to spare. Richa Ghosh hit the winning runs - a boundary through covers.
Advertisement
Sophie Devine and captain Smriti Mandhana started slowly while chasing a low target of 114 runs. They took their time to set eyes on the pitch and opened their arms after the powerplay.
Devine lost her wicket in the ninth over to Shikha Pandey, who finished her spell with the bowling figures of 4-0-11-1. Mandhana stitched a 33-run partnership with Perry for the second wicket and holed out to Arundhati Reddy in the 15th over. Then Ghosh came and remained unbeaten with Perry and took RCB home successfully.
Earlier, Meg Lanning won the toss and elected to bat first in the final. Delhi Capitals had everything under control until the powerplay. Shafali Verma was blasting every second delivery for a boundary whereas captain Lanning was playing the role of catalyst by giving her strike.
Advertisement
Both batters targeted Renuka Thakur Singh when she came in the fourth over to bowl her second over. Verma started with a six and Lanning ended with two fours to collect 19 runs from that over. That remained the costliest over of their innings.
Sophie Molineux, the left-arm orthodox from Australia was brought back into the attack right after the powerplay ended and she got rid of Verma on the first delivery. She bowled Jemimah Rodrigues and Alice Capsey on the third and fourth delivery. Within the four deliveries, the scenario of the match changed completely. RCB never loosened their hold on the match from that point.
Shreyanka Patil dismissed Delhi's captain Meg Lanning LBW which she reviewed and the decision came in RCB's favour. The 33-year-old uncapped Indian spinner Asha Sobhana dismissed two batters (Marizanne Kapp and Jess Jonassen) in the same over to put RCB down further.
Patil then dismissed the last two batters on successive deliveries to restrict Delhi Capitals to 113 runs in 18.3 overs. She went back with the bowling figures of 3.3-0-12-4. She got four wickets against the same opposition in the 17th match of the WPL 2024. However, RCB lost that match by just one run.
Before this victory, Royal Challengers Bangalore Women had never defeated Delhi Capitals Women in the WPL history. The much-awaited victory came when it was needed the most and the spin quartet of Shreyanka Patil, Sophie Molineux, Asha Sobhana and Georgia Wareham shined in that win.
Advertisement
RCB fans waited for this to happen someday and now they have a trophy in their cabinet albeit it came from the women's team. Virat Kohli also gave a video message right after the results.
It is indeed a glorious moment in the history of the RCB franchise. They not only won their maiden WPL title but also got the Fair Play Award. Shreyank Patil, who took four wickets in the match was awarded the purple cap for getting the most wickets (13) in the tournament. She was also given the Emerging Player Of The Tournament Award. Her teammate, Ellyse Perry got the orange cap for most runs (367).
