New Delhi, Mar 10 (PTI) Jemimah Rodrigues displayed her complete mastery over slow bowlers with a 26-ball half-century that propelled Delhi Capitals to a competitive 181 for 5 against Royal Challengers Bangalore in a WPL match here on Sunday.

However, young off-spinner Shreyanka Patil grabbed four for 26 in her four overs and was brilliant at the business end of the DC innings to put brakes on the home team’s scoring.

In front of a vociferous holiday crowd, Rodrigues brought out sweeps, cuts, pulls and the exquisite inside out lofted drive from the closet to score 58 off 34 balls adding 97 runs in just 10.1 overs for the third wicket in the process with Alice Capsey (48 off 32 balls), who used the long handle to good effect during the slog overs.

This was after Shafali Verma (23 off 18 balls) and Meg Lanning (29 off 26 balls) added 54 for the opening stand but they were then dismissed in quick succession.

Rodrigues, not exactly known for her power-hitting, depended on her solid touch play, immaculate timing and deft placements to get eight fours and a six.

The maximum off leg-break bowler Georgia Wareham, imperiously hit over extra cover brought up her milestone.

However, her best shot was the inside out loft that was dispatched to boundary just wide of long-off. She found an able ally in Capsey, who initially let the Indian take more of the strike before upping the ante during the death overs.

Spinner Asha Shobhana seeing her coming down the track, tried to bowl one wide and out of her reach but the Southern Stars batter used her big reach to wallop her over extra cover.

Rodrigues, who should have scored more, was bowled round the legs when she tried to convert off-spinner Shreyanka’s full-toss into an over-pitched delivery in her bid to play a paddle sweep.

Capsey, who also hit eight boundaries, continued to find the gaps before opposition’s best bowler Shreyanka bowled a great last couple of overs to keep DC under check, conceding only nine runs in them.

Source: PTI News