Sports

Delhi Capitals Defeat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 25 Runs in WPL 2024, Ending Unbeaten Run

At Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday, the Delhi Capitals handed hosts Royal Challengers Bangalore their first defeat of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) second season, winning by a margin of 25 runs. At the Chinnaswamy, where the RCB captain was chasing 195 runs to win, it was undoubtedly the Smriti Mandhana show. With his bat, the captain alone applied tremendous pressure to the DC bowling, enabling the hosts to score 52 runs following the powerplay, 45 of which came from Mandhana. Even though Devine struggled to get going at her end and reached her first WPL half-century off 32 balls, the southpaw kept RCB in the game. After hitting two straight sixes from Minnu Mani, Devine eventually got rolling. However, in the following over (23 runs off 17 balls), Devine fell, giving Arundhati Reddy her first wicket. DC found themselves slightly up in the match with 10 overs remaining and RCB needing 85 runs, but they could not yet let up with Mandhana in the middle.

The southpaw and the form Sabbhineni Meghana moderated the asking rate with some cautious batting, but after DC dismissed Mandhana (74 runs off 43 balls), bowled by Marizanne Kapp, they took a big lead in the match. After 15 overs, with the score at 138 for 2, Meghana and Richa Ghosh had the task of leading the RCB home through a difficult chase. But when the visitors increased the pressure on the hosts, the wicketkeeper batsman was hit by DC’s MVP Kapp on the opening ball of the 16th over for 19. The DC triumphed by 25 runs in the end, even though the RCB required 51 runs from the last four overs due to some outstanding bowling and decisive fielding. Earlier, DC reached a massive 194 for 5 in 20 overs with 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). The drama started with the first ball of the match, as RCB took a long time to determine whether to review a leg before wicket from Renuka Singh Thakur. As they did, DC skipper Meg Lanning was unhappy because she believed the allowed time had passed. RCB lost the review and granted Verma a reprieve in the same over after Shreyanka Patil dropped her on four.

Lanning (11 runs off 17 balls) was lost by the DC opening pair, who were mostly silent during the powerplay. Lanning was caught by Georgia Wareham off Sophie Devine. After 10 overs, the score was 84 for 1. Verma and Alice Capsey, the new batswoman, appeared to have picked up where she left off in her brilliant 75 runs in 53 balls against MI in the tournament opener, going after both the pacers and the spinners to put tremendous pressure on the hosts. Verma reached her fifty in thirty deliveries, but she lost her footing shortly after when Wareham again caught her off Patil’s bowling. Shortly after, Jemimah Rodrigues (0 runs off 4 balls) was removed by RCB, leaving DC 111 for 3 in 13 overs after he was caught by Asha Sobhana off Nadine de Klerk.

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A few overs later, De Klerk bowled (46 runs off 33 balls) to win the crucial wicket of Capsey, giving her team a chance to finish well in the final overs. Ultimately, though, the stand proved to be the difference between victory and defeat as Kapp (32 runs off 16 balls) and Jonassen (36 not out off 15 balls) destroyed the RCB bowling to every corner of the Chinnaswamy, scoring 48 runs in 22 balls.

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