As Gujarat Giants batted first and reached a solid 201 for 7 following two outstanding
half-centuries from Sophia Dunkley (65), and Harleen Deol (67), their bowlers did a
respectable job of holding RCB to 190 for 6.
Mumbai: Gujarat Giants defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Women’s Premier
League (WPL) here on Wednesday, prevailing by 11 runs to earn their first victory in three
games and handing them their third straight loss.
As Gujarat Giants batted first and reached a solid 201 for 7 following two outstanding
half-centuries from Sophia Dunkley (65) and Harleen Deol (67), their bowlers performed a
respectable job of holding RCB to 190 for 6 in their 20 overs.
In their pursuit, RCB opener and New Zealand batswoman Sophie Devine primarily played
by herself, scoring a solid 66 from 45 balls with eight fours and two sixes.
Heather Knight gave RCB some hope near the end (30 not out off 11 balls), but the task of
getting 33 runs off the final two overs and 24 off the final over was too much for the
Bangalore team.
Smriti Mandhana, the skipper and star batswoman for the RCB, failed once more, getting out
for 18, and Ellyse Perry (32) also struggled to make a significant contribution despite getting
off to a strong start and creating a crucial 43-run partnership with Devine for the second
wicket.
“Even in bowling, we conceded 10-15 runs more than anticipated.”There were two or three
overs where we gave up a lot of runs, but not 6-7,” Mandhana remarked following the game.
If not, we would have improved (with the aim). The outfield is nice, but one end is particularly
short and wasn’t designed with many of our bowlers in mind. We’re attempting to fix that. As
Devine chose the aggressive path and Mandhana played second fiddle in the powerplay,
RCB were poised to challenge the target set by Gujarat Giants after giving up more than 200
runs for the second time in three matches thus far in the WPL.
The right-handed New Zealand batswoman hit Kim Garth for a few fours in the third over and
defeated Annabel Sutherland with three boundaries in the fifth.
Mandhana and Devine added 54 runs to the opening partnership’s 5.1 overs of play before
Ashleigh Gardner got the first wicket, getting the RCB captain caught by Mansi Joshi at
mid-on.
Sneh Rana, the captain of Gujarat, was struck hard in the hands in the tenth over by a
strong return stroke from Perry. After receiving initial care, Rana finished the over, but she
soon departed the field.
Although Perry and Devine managed to keep the ship stable, pressure built up on them over
time due to a lack of boundaries. Perry, a right-handed batter, hit two fours off Joshi in the
12th over but only one of them was straight; he had already made 32 off 25 balls and five
fours in total.
Devine cleared the ropes against Tanuja Kanwar to break the chains as RCB needed
another 85 from the final six overs at an asking rate of 14. It was not until the first ball of the
14th – that RCB hit their first six.
Gardner delivered the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) another blow by dismissing the
powerful Richa Ghosh for 10 with 77 required off the final five overs.
