The Delhi Capitals inflicted hosts Royal Challengers Bangalore’s first loss of the second season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL), winning by 25 runs at Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday.
Chasing 195 runs for victory, it was well-and-truly the Smriti Mandhana show at the Chinnaswamy as the RCB skipper single-handedly exerted tons of pressure on the DC bowling helping the hosts reach 52 runs after the Powerplay, of which 45 runs came from Mandhana’s bat.
The southpaw kept RCB in the game, even as Devine found it tough to get going at her end and got to her maiden WPL half-century, off 32 balls.
Devine finally got going with two consecutive sixes off Minnu Mani but fell in the next over (23 runs off 17 balls) to give Arundhati Reddy her first wicket.
With RCB needing 85 runs in the last 10 overs, DC found themselves marginally ahead in the contest but with Mandhana still in the middle, they could not relax just yet.
The southpaw and the in-form Sabbhineni Meghana kept the asking rate in check with some measured batting, but DC nudged significantly ahead in the contest when they removed Mandhana (74 runs off 43 balls), bowled by Marizanne Kapp.
The onus to take RCB home fell on Meghana and Richa Ghosh and at 138 for 2 after 15 overs, needed to take the hosts home in a tricky chase. But the wicket-keeper batter fell off the first ball of the 16th over for 19 to DC’s MVP Kapp as the visitors mounted the pressure on the hosts.
RCB needed 51 runs off the final four overs, but a combination of some excellent bowling and clutch fielding meant the DC were always ahead in the game and in the end, won by 25 runs.
Earlier, contributions from Shafali Verma (50 runs off 31 balls), Alice Capsey (46 runs off 33 balls), Kapp (32 runs off 17 balls) and Jess Jonassen (36 not off 15 balls) helped DC reach a mammoth 194 for 5 in 20 overs.