Women's Cricket
Royal Challengers Bangalore clinches WPL 2024 for its maiden trophy
RCB defeated Delhi Capitals by 8 wickets in the final. The stars were RCB's spinners - Shreyanka Patil, who picked up four wickets for 12 runs, and Sophie Molineux, who scalped three wickets in exchange for 20 runs.
Royal Challengers Bangalore players celebrating after lifting the WPL 2024 trophy at Delhi's Arun Jaitley Stadium on March 17, 2024.
Royal Challengers Bangalore clinched the second edition of the Women's Premier League (WPL) in what was its maiden title across genders after its women's team handed out Delhi Capitals an eight-wicket defeat in the final at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Sunday.
The stars of the night were RCB's spinners - India's Shreyanka Patil, who picked up four wickets for 12 runs, and Australian Sophie Molineux, who scalped three wickets in exchange for 20 runs. Their disciplined bowling left DC bowled out for 113 in 18.3 overs.
This was DC's second straight runner-up finish in the WPL. In the inaugural edition last year, DC went down to Mumbai Indians.
Deciding to bat first after winning the toss, DC skipper Meg Lanning (23 off 23 balls) and Shafali Verma (44 off 27 balls) gave the franchise a solid start piling on 64 runs in 7 overs.
Shafali was particularly aggressive between the duo as she went hammer and tongs after a rather slow start in the first 11 balls. The Indian opener smashed three sixes and two boundaries as Lanning played the second fiddle.
Shafali hoisted Molineux over the long-on boundary for the first six of the innings. She would then take Renuka Singh to the cleaner in the fourth over, with 19 runs coming off the over.
As Shafali kept hammering RCB bowlers, Lanning would finally open her arms and hit two boundaries off the last two deliveries of the same over.
But RCB managed to put an end to that onslaught when Molineux ran through the DC's top order by taking three wickets in the eighth over with her slow left-arm bowling. She dismissed Shafali, Jemmimah Rodrigues and Alice Capsey to leave DC tattering at 64 for 3 from 64 for none.
Shreyanka would soon chip in by scalping the big wicket of Lanning as she trapped the Australian star in front in the fourth delivery of the 11th over.
From this stage, DC lost seven wickets for a mere 23 runs, with Asha Sobhana picking up two wickets and Shreyanka keeping things tight for the tail-enders, adding three more wickets to her kitty to finish the match with four wickets.
DC was eventually bowled out for a paltry 113.
Chasing the target, RCB skipper Smriti Mandhana (31) and Sophie Devine (32) provided their team with a quick start accumulating 49 runs in eight overs. Though Minnu Rani and Shikha Pandey managed to dismiss them, all-rounder Elysse Perry, the star campaigner for RCB this season, took her team home with her clinical 35 not out.
RCB would eventually score 115 in 19.3 overs and clinch its maiden trophy, with Richa Ghosh finishing it off in style striking a four off Arundhati Reddy.
This was RCB's maiden title across genders. RCB men came close to winning the Indian Premier League (IPL) thrice in 2009, 2011 and 2016. But on all three occasions, it lost. The franchise's women's team changed that anomaly by winning the WPL 2024.
