Vadodara, Feb 17 (IANS) Captain Smriti Mandhana lit up the Monday night sky at the Kotambi Stadium by hitting 81 off 47 balls, her highest score in Women’s Premier League (WPL), as Royal Challengers Bengaluru thrashed Delhi Capitals by eight wickets to continue their unbeaten run in the ongoing season on Monday.
After pacer Renuka Singh Thakur and leg-spinner Georgia Wareham picked three wickets each in an impressive bowling performance from RCB to bowl out DC for 141, Smriti and Danni Wyatt-Hodge came out all guns blazing to share a 107-run stand for the opening wicket.
Smriti, though, shined the brightest by putting out an exhibition of classy strokeplay and combining superb timing with great placement of shots to hit ten fours and three sixes in her knock coming at a strike rate of 172.34. Her match-winning efforts meant RCB are now at the top of the points table with a win set to boost their net run rate.
Chasing 143, Smriti was elegant from the word go by pulling and clipping Marizanne Kapp for two fours. She quelled the off-spin threat from Minnu Mani by sweeping her twice for fours and was aided by mis-fields too. Danni got two boundaries off Shikha Pandey, one of which came off a mis-field again.
Smriti’s scintillating touch continued when she thumped Arundhati Reddy over long-off for six before Danni sliced Shikha twice for two fours to close the Power-play at 57/0. With dew setting in, the duo took a four each off Jess Jonassen and Annabel Sutherland respectively to keep RCB steady in the chase.
Against the left-arm spin of Jess Jonassen, Smriti stepped out to drive her for a boundary, before going back to pull through square leg for another boundary and got her fifty off just 27 balls with a single. Danni got a lifeline on 34 when Jemimah Rodrigues dropped her catch at deep extra cover.
Marizanne’s nightmarish game continued when Smriti sent her short ball flying over deep mid-wicket for six with a delightful pull, while Danni drove a fuller ball through cover for a boundary. The 107-run opening stand ended when Jemimah held Danni’s catch by charging in at deep cover off Arundhati Reddy’s bowling.
But there was no stopping Smriti – backing away to dispatch Annabel for four and driving plus dispatching Jess for four and six respectively. Her knock, though, ended on 81 when she shuffled across to scoop, but was caught by a short fine leg off Shikha’s bowling. But it was too little and too late for DC as Ellyse Perry and Richa Ghosh completed the chase with 22 balls to spare.
Previously, on a slightly slower pitch, DC made 51 runs in eight overs when the first time-out happened. Jemimah and captain Meg Lanning eventually added 59 runs for the second wicket. But once their partnership was broken, DC’s innings unravelled spectacularly as they lost five wickets by the time the second time-out came.
Sarah Bryce made 23 in a late effort to help DC go just above 140, a total that always looked below par. Renuka and Georgia, who made a double strike in the 18th over, got good support from Kim Garth and Ekta Bisht, who picked two wickets each.
Electing to bowl first, Renuka provided the early breakthrough for RCB when Shafali Varma tried to hit it over mid-off but failed to time her shot well and was caught out for a golden duck. With RCB getting a fair amount of inward movement, they got some LBW shouts too, but it didn’t yield them another wicket.
Meg got going by cutting off Renuka to pierce the gap between backward point and short third for four, before driving through point to pick another boundary. Meg cut Kim deftly past short third for four, followed by Jemimah driving off the pace past mid-off for a boundary.
Jemimah turned on the heat by lofting Ekta for six, followed by slamming, pulling, and cutting Joshitha V.J. for six and two fours, the last of which came off a misfield. After drilling Georgia for four, Jemimah’s joyride ended on the very next ball when she came out for a reverse sweep but missed the ball and was duly stumped from behind by Richa Ghosh.
After that, DC endured a slide that derailed their innings: Meg’s scratchy knock ended when she got a top edge on the pull off Kim and was caught by deep fine-leg. Annabel tried to break free but hit straight to extra cover off Renuka, while Jess smashed to mid-wicket’s hands off Ekta, who later had Marizanne holing out to long-off.
Sarah and Shikha put in a handy 25-run stand before the former was stumped off Georgia. A delivery later, Radha Yadav hit a ball straight back to Georgia, as the leg-spinner completed a simple caught and bowled dismissal. Renuka got her third wicket when Shikha sliced to point, followed by Kim ending DC’s innings by having Arundhati hole out to deep mid-wicket.
Brief scores:
Delhi Capitals 141 in 19.3 overs (Jemimah Rodrigues 34, Sarah Bryce 23; Renuka Singh Thakur 3-23, Georgia Wareham 3-25) lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru 146/2 in 16.2 overs (Smriti Mandhana 81, Danni Wyatt-Hodge 42; Arundhati Reddy 1-25, Shikha Pandey 1-27) by eight wickets
–IANS
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