All-round bowling by Delhi Capitals ends Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s winning run, giving a big boost to their own playoff hopes.
It doesn’t take much for tables to turn in T20 cricket. An ordinary batting performance, followed by some shoddy fielding, brought the previously unvanquished Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) crashing back to earth while Delhi Capitals, who had been well beaten by Smriti Mandhana’s outfit a week ago, exacted sweet revenge with a seven-wicket win that took them to the second spot on the Women’s Premier League (WPL) points table with their eyes firmly set on the playoffs.
Making most of conditions
The pitch at Vadodara seems polar opposite to the one in Navi Mumbai. Bowlers look much more in the game on the slow, low surface, which also offers some turn. The RCB batters found the going tough against the DC attack on Saturday, who primarily focused on targeting the stumps.
Smriti, who single-handedly settled the chase in the previous encounter between these two sides with a blistering 96, top-scored again, but it was hard work. Apart from her knock (38 off 34 balls, 6x4s, 1×6), only two others got into double figures as the DC bowlers dismissed RCB for a mere 109.
Marizanne Kapp is as reliable as one can get with the new ball, and she got good support from Chinelle Henry. Nandni Sharma was among the wickets again, and the pacer from Chandigarh is now the highest wicket-taker in the tournament.
Left-arm spinner Sree Charani is often hard to get away, even on the best of days and the truest of surfaces, and she put a chokehold on the RCB batting, getting through her four-over spell for the miserly expense of 14 runs, with the scalp of Gautami Naik. Once the skipper fell with the total on 62 in the 10th over, the RCB innings nosedived with the highest subsequent partnership of just 16.
Anxious early moments
Much of RCB’s success in this edition of the WPL has been built on the new-ball pairing of Lauren Bell and Sayali Satghare, and if they had a few more runs to bowl with and their fielders had backed them, it could have been interesting.
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Sayali kept the batters guessing which delivery would dart in and which would hold its line. Shafali Verma predicted an in-dipper, which instead straightened, giving the impression that it moved away. The swashbuckling opener had dragged her feet out of the crease to meet the ball and was expertly stumped by Richa, standing up to the stumps.
After Lizelle Lee holed out, Jemimah Rodrigues edged one first ball, but there was no one in the slips. Soon, Sayali dropped a sitter at short third off Bell. As it turned out, Jemimah (24) and Laura Wolvaardt (42 not out) added 52 for the third wicket to settle the contest.
Brief scores: Royal Challengers Bengaluru 109 (Mandhana 38; Nandni 3/26, Kapp 2/17, Mani 2/18, Henry 2/2) lost to Delhi Capitals 111/3 in 15.4 overs (Wolvaardt 42 not out; Sayali 2/18) by seven wickets
