Displaying absolute dominance, a Smrit Mandhana-inspired Royal Challengers Bengaluru lifted their second Women’s Premier League trophy with a six-wicket victory over Delhi Capitals, who failed to seize the moment on the biggest stage despite playing in their fourth final here on Thursday.RCB captain Mandhana looked in imperious touch on way to a magnificent 87 off 41 balls, while Georgia Voll smashed 79 in 54 deliveries during a 165-run partnership for the second wicket with her skipper, which paved the way for a memorable title triumph.
This was after skipper Jemimah Rodrigues rose to the occasion with a scintillating half-century and Chinelle Henry blazed away to a 15-ball 35 to lift Delhi Capitals to an imposing 203 for four.
Laura Wolvaardt (44 not out off 25 balls) and Lizelle Lee (37 off 30 balls) also made quick runs after DC were put in. Rodrigues slammed 57 off 37 balls.
In reply, RCB completed the record chase with two balls remaining while joining Mumbai Indians as the most successful teams in the WPL.
In the stiff chase, RCB lost the big wicket of Grace Harris (9) early but skipper Smriti Mandhana and Georgia Voll kept them in the contest by scoring quickly and keeping pace with the required run rate.
Both Mandhana and Georgia drove anything that was pitched up with ease, pulled and cut the short balls with authority as RCB reached 100 exactly at the halfway mark. requiring 104 runs in 60 balls.
Meanwhile Mandhana, having just hit two sixes, raced to her fifty in 23 balls with a sublime boundary against Sneh Rana.
Voll was also at her best at the other end, dispatching everything that was in her arc with utter disdain.
The equation came down to 54 of 36 balls after Mandhana smashed Shree Charani for two boundaries to take RCB to 150 in 14 overs.
The two continued to dominate until Voll gave her wicket away to Minnu Mani, raising DC hopes. However, RCB held their nerves to emerge winners.
Earlier, the Royal Challengers were on the money in the first three overs with Lauren Bell and Sayali Satghare conceding just nine runs as Shafali Verma and Lee did not get enough width to free their arms.
However, the fourth over bowled by Satghare saw the Capitals release the pressure with Lee clobbering the medium pacer’s half-volley and half-tracker two successive sixes — one over long-off and another over mid-wicket.
There was then an appeal for a stumping thanks to Richa Ghosh’s enterprise and it was followed by Satghare failing to latch on to a difficult caught and bowled chance, ending an eventful over that yielded the Capitals 20 runs and gave them the much-needed momentum after the sluggish start.
With DC reaching 36 after five overs, skipper Smriti Mandhana introduced Arundhati Reddy into the attack and Shafali straightaway collected two fours. However, Reddy hit back with the wicket of Shafali with a short ball, which was smartly taken by Ghosh behind the stumps.
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