(Cricket news) To close out a fantastic weekend in which two teams—the Delhi Capitals and the Mumbai Indians—sealed a spot in the playoffs, the WPL delivered an electrifying thriller for the third time in a row on Saturday night. But even after she and Sophie Devine had reduced the required equation from 74 off 36 balls to 40 off 18, and then two off one with Ghosh on strike, Royal Challengers Bangalore still lost by just one run. Richa Ghosh, on the other hand, was unable to emulate what Harmanpreet Kaur accomplished for Mumbai.
With the win, the bottom-of-the-table Gujarat Giants are still in the running. Additionally, the Capitals have a commanding 4-0 head-to-head record against RCB after two seasons.
After removing Smriti Mandhana early in the game, Ellyse Perry in the middle overs, and Devine for 26, the Capitals led RCB to 40 from 17. Using Georgia Wareham’s 12-ball six to boost him, Ghosh kept hitting boundaries, cutting the score to 17 off the final over. Ghosh farmed the strike to continue going for the big hits after beginning that with a demeaning six over the bowler. When the RCB needed eight from the final two balls, she blasted another six on the fifth ball, but despite a full-length dive, she was unable to make her ground at the non-striker’s end and was unable to clear backward point on the final ball.
After the run-out, a despondent Ghosh laid down on the ground with her head buried while the Capitals fielders erupted in celebration all around her. As a result, the Giants are still in the running despite having only won one of their last five games. Mumbai and the Capitals remain in the top two, followed by RCB and UP Warriorz in third and fourth place, respectively, with six points apiece. The final knockout spot will go to the third-place team.
Ghosh nearly does it
Following Perry’s out-of-form Devine’s removal for 49 at the conclusion of the 11th over, RCB required a strong 93 off 54 to overcome a scratchy Sophie Molineux. Before long, Molineux was out for 33 off 30. Had wicketkeeper Taniya Bhatia not dropped the ball before shattering the stumps, Devine would also have been run out. Devine exploited Radha Yadav’s left-arm spin when he had 73 to make off 34 balls, hitting two sixes and a four in a row to make it 57 off 30 balls.
Then Ghosh pursued Arundhati Reddy. The first ball off the sixteenth was finely tickled for four, and the final ball struck the covers completely. 45 off 24 at this point, with 7 wickets remaining. The Capitals responded with a five-run over from the seasoned Shikha Pandey, and then Marizanne Kapp got Devine to hole out for 26 off 16 to put the onus squarely on Ghosh’s shoulders. Though Ghosh played a fantastic half-bat-open scoop on the off side fine for four and Wareham collected two fours, her last-over sixes and last-ball dive were insufficient.
RCB spinners hit the brakes after fifty opening stand
Meg Lanning destroyed Renuka Singh’s second over for four fours, including three of her signature square drives and cuts, in a 20-run over that also included three wides, following a quiet opening three overs for the Capitals. However, the spinners put a stop to the Capitals’ momentum shortly after Shafali Verma got off with a six and four off WPL rookie and left-arm fast Shradda Pokharkar.
Asha Sobhana dismissed Shafali for 23 with a ripping legbreak after Molineux had bowled her first two overs for just 12, and Shreyanka Patil marked her return to the starting XI by trapping Lanning leg before wicket for 29 following the powerplay.
Rodrigues sweeps RCB away
After switching places at Nos. 3 and 4, Jemimah Rodrigues and Alice Capsey took turns going after runs on a pitch that saw some turn and a persistent lack of bounce. Rodrigues completed her sweep as Capsey gained two fours from Patil on the ground. In the thirteenth over, she hit two of Molineux’s three fours after paddling a free shot off Pokharkar for four earlier. In the 14th over, Rodrigues finished with a magnificent inside-out six over the covers for a 26-ball fifty. As Georgia Wareham pitched wide outside off to negate the sweep, Rodrigues displayed magnificent strokes on the off side for consecutive fours.
Patil returns for more brakes
After bowling two of the final three overs, Patil stole the stage. After just three singles in the first four balls in the eighteenth over, she bowled Rodrigues for 58 in a four-run over, demonstrating her ability to send deliveries to the set batsmen. Fit and back in the starting lineup, Capsey and Marizanne Kapp hammered the next over for eighteen runs, but Patil’s quickness and smothering lines again caused the Capitals to be upset as Capsey and Jonassen gave up just five runs in the over and finished with 4 for 26.
The Perry spice in RCB’s sedate start
Perry increased the run pace with swipes for a six and four off Jonassen and two fours off a Kapp over, leading them to 42 in the powerplay when Mandhana went early for the third time in a row to an offspinner. The asking rate was above ten, but Molineux was unable to keep up with the tempo, and Perry was still getting boundaries off Jonassen.
Perry failed to face another ball despite reaching 48 runs when she attempted a nonexistent single in the 11th over and failed despite taking a full length dive. In the next over, Molineux holed out to Rodrigues at deep cover, which brought Devine and Ghosh together. The two went deep into the chase, and Ghosh came within one run of winning it for her team.
