New Delhi, March 17: A spirited women’s team washed away Royal Challengers Bangalore’s 16 years of hurt and disappointment, landing their maiden title which came through an eight-wicket win over Delhi Capitals in front of a cheering full house in the Women’s Premier League final here on Sunday.
Once the spin pair of Shreyanka Patil (4/12) and Sophie Molineux (3/20) engineered a DC collapse to 113 all out, there could have been only one winner.
But the formalities had to be completed. RCB did it via their talismanic skipper Smriti Mandhana (31), Sophie Devine (32) and the impactful Elysse Perry (35 not out).
The Royal Challengers made 115 for two in 19.3 overs, a far easier victory than that tight-looking final over finish.
There will be celebrations in the dressing room, at a packed Arun Jaitley Stadium where a near full house bayed for a RCB win and in thousands of living rooms miles away in Bangalore.
A generation of RCB fans have waited for this moment, a wait that often gave fodder to social media trolls and memes.All they could show during these years were three final appearances in 2009, 2011 and 2016.
But all that changed tonight. They have a trophy in their cabinet now.
But DC, led by Meg Lanning, will rue the missed chance of bettering their runners-up position from WPL 2023, whereas RCB improved their fourth-place finish last year in a brilliant fashion.Chasing a modest target, RCB started cautiously with the pair of Mandhana and Devine sharing 49 runs in 8.1 overs.
While Mandhana played the role of an anchor, Devine opted to attack, decorating her innings with five boundaries and one maximum before she was trapped in front by pacer Shikha Pandey.
The wicket seemed to have slowed down RCB as Mandhana and Perry struggled to find their timing as boundaries dried up.
Perry finally broke the shackles in the 13th over, hitting pacer Arundhati Reddy to the deep midwicket boundary and then two balls later Mandhana cut the bowler to backward point fence.
RCB were nearly at home, reaching 82 for one in the 15th over but a rash shot from Mandhana led to her downfall.The left-hander skied a Minnu Mani delivery to Reddy at mid-on to keep the contest alive.But Perry continued her fine run and in the company of Richa Ghosh (17 not out) calmly helped RCB reach 115 in 19.3 overs, sharing an unbeaten 33 runs for the third wicket.
Ghosh finished off the chase in style with a four off Reddy.But the RCB spinners too can claim rightful credit for this triumph.DC were cruising at 64 for no loss in 43 balls before they committed harakiri, losing 10 wickets for just 49 runs in front of a 28,781 capacity crowd, who looked divided in their loyalties.
Molineux started DC’s downfall, picking up three wickets in the eighth over.Thereafter, the hosts never really recovered, losing wickets at regular intervals, courtesy some loose shots. (PTI)
