March Highlights
Yesterday at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, the Delhi Capitals (DC) defeated the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by a margin of one run in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2024 match. After the Mumbai Indians, Delhi became the second club to earn a postseason spot with the narrow victory. After winning the toss and opting to bat first, DC amassed 181-5 in yet another thrilling last-ball match. Jemimah Rodrigues was the standout player with 58 off 36. Bangalore replied, but came up just short, ending on 180-7. A fantastic knock by Richa Ghosh (51 off 29) kept RCB in the hunt right up to the very end.
The Last over drama
The equation came down to 17 off the last over bowled by Jess Jonassen. Ghosh smacked the first ball for a maximum down the ground. Disha Kasat (0) sacrificed her wicket to get Ghosh back on strike off the third ball.
Ghosh hit a maximum with the last delivery, which went over the deep midwicket fence, after getting two runs off the fourth delivery with a slap towards deep backward square leg. But the batsman and RCB suffered misery after that. Ghosh cuts a full delivery to backward point with two needing off the final ball. Ghosh made a frantic dive, but Shafali Verma retained her composure and delivered the ball to Jonassen, who removed the bails to catch Ghosh short of her crease. Jemimah Rodrigues was player of the match.
Bangalore’s batting
Earlier, Bangalore’s chase had started badly when captain Smriti Mandhana (5) was caught by Alice Capsey’s skidder directly in front of the stumps. The second wicket partnership of Ellyse Perry (49 off 32) and Sophie Molineux (33 off 30) brought RCB to a victory. The hitters attempted a non-existent single, and Perry was run out to end the threatening stand. In the next over, Molineux was caught at deep cover by Arundhati Reddy, and he fell. In the fifteenth over, which Radha Yadav bowled, Sophie Devine chipped in with a tidy 26 off 16, which included two sixes and a four. Following Devine’s exit, Ghosh gave DC a real scare, putting up a scintillating exhibition of big-hitting, but, for RCB, it was just not enough.
DC’s Rodrigues and Capsey excel at bat
As they batted first, the Delhi Capitals got off to yet another strong start with to a quick 54 for the first wicket in 6.2 overs from captain Meg Lanning (29 off 26) and Shafali (23 off 18). Capsey and Rodrigues took full advantage of the opening over, combining for a 97-run partnership for the second wicket. In the 14th over, Rodrigues hit Georgia Wareham for two fours and a six, zooming to a 26-ball fifty. Shreyanka Patil knocked her down, ending her spectacular knock. The RCB off-spinner also cleaned up Capsey in the next over and had Jonassen stumped for 1 to finish with excellent figures of 4-26. Ironically, she was at the other end when Ghosh was run out off the last ball of the nail-biting encounter.
By Kevin Varchand