Lucknow, March 8 (IANS) Australian batter Georgia Voll scored a sensational unbeaten 99 off 56 balls as UP Warriorz blasted 225/5 in 20 overs for the highest-ever total in Women’s Premier League (WPL), hammering Royal Challengers Bengaluru all around the ground in Match 18 at the Ekana Stadium here on Saturday.
Already out of contention, UP Warriorz were playing to end their campaign with a win and they made the most of the innocuous RCB bowling to blast a massive score, overtaking Delhi Capitals’ 223/5 in 20 overs scored against RCB in 2023.
Voll played a brilliant knock, blasting 99 not out off 56 balls, hammering 17 boundaries and one six at a superb strike rate of 176.78 to propel UP Warriorz. She was unlucky to miss a well-deserved maiden century, failing to get two runs off the last ball. She ended up at 99 not out, the highest ever individual score in WPL history, equalling Sophie Devine’s score.
Asked to bat first, UP Warriorz seems to have discovered their mojo as they made a blistering start with Grace Harris and Voll raising 67 runs in six overs, posting the highest score in the power-play this season.
Harris despatched the first two deliveries of the match from Kim Garth for boundaries and then blasted Renuka Singh for a straight six. A hat-trick of fours off Garth, including a scoop past short fine leg, in the third over and two more boundaries — a thump through the point and drive through deep square and deep midwicket — later she is out the only way she can be, run out while going for a non-existent single. She scored 39 off 22 and UP were 77/1 in the eighth over.
Georgia Voll waded into Renuka Singh at the other end, hitting her for three boundaries in four balls in the fourth over. She slog-swept Charlie Dean for a six off her first delivery in WPL and followed that up with two fours for 14 runs in her first over.
The RCB bowlers bowled short and wide while skipper Mandhana brought the spinners from the side of shortest boundaries and the UPW batters made merry at their cost.
Kiran Navgire was equally brutal in her approach as she hammered 46 off 16 balls, hitting a half-tracker from Ellyse Perry for a six before striking Georgia Wareham for back-to-back sixes in the 10th over. She blasted Renuka Singh two fours and two sixes in a 22-run over before holing out to Perry at long-on off Wareham, missing out on the fastest fifty in the WPL. She hit two boundaries and five maximums during her brief cameo.
Voll went on to complete her fifty off 31 balls, her knock studded with nine fours and one six. Chinelle Henry struck 19 off 15 balls and the RCB bowlers pulled things back a bit as Voll missed her century as UP Warriorz lost two wickets in a dramatic final over, including a run out off Deepti Sharma on the final ball, as Voll was left stranded on 99.
This left RCB needing the biggest chase of the WPL to keep alive their chances of reaching the playoffs.
Brief scores:
UP Warriorz 225/5 in 20 overs (Georgia Voll 99 not out, Kiran Navgirer 46, Grace Harris 39; Georgia Wareham 2-43) against Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
–IANS
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