Women's Cricket
WPL 2026: Royal Challengers Bengaluru thrash UP Warriorz to book Final spot
RCB chased down the target with eight wickets and 41 balls to spare.
Grace Harris and Smriti Mandhana added 108 runs for opening wickets against UP Warriorz (Photo credit: WPL/Twitter)
The Royal Challengers Bengaluru thrashed UP Warriorz by eight wickets to all but book a direct spot in the final of the 2026 Women's Premier League on Thursday.
The Smriti Mandhana-led team moved to 12 points with six wins in eight matches. The maximum the other teams can reach is ten points, thus ensuring them a top of the table finish.
The decision to field first seemed to have backfired at first for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru as openers Meg Lanning (41) and Deepti Sharma (55) stitched a 74-run opening stand for the UP Warriorz.
However once Lanning was prized out by Nadine de Klerk in the ninth over, the rest of the Warriorz batting unit fell like a pack of cards.
From 74-1 in the ninth over, they could only muster 143-8 in their 20 overs as the former champions pulled things back exceptionally.
de Klerk emerged as the best bowler, finishing with figures of 4-22 in her four overs.
With a partly total to chase, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru were never troubled in the second innings.
Grace Harris and Smriti Mandhana went bonkers as they smashed 63 runs off the powerplay. The duo continued to hit boundaries for fun, adding 108 for the opening wicket in just 8.1 overs.
Though Harris was cleaned up by Shikha Pandey after a stunning 37-ball 75 which included 13 boundaries and two sixes, skipper Mandhana (54*) ensured that Royal Challengers Bengaluru reached the target with 41 balls to spare.