Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) finally opened their account in the inaugural Women’s Premier League when they beat UP Warriorz by five wickets at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday.
Courtesy this win, RCB are no longer at the bottom of the table as the Gujarat Giants now have slipped to the last position in the standings. Besides, RCB are still alive when it comes to making the knockout stage after prevailing in the first of their three must win clashes.
RCB, who won the toss and elected to bowl first, bowlers fired in unison to limit the Warriorz to a modest 135 in 19.3 overs. Ellyse Perry returned the best figures with 3/16, though it were Sophie Devine (2/23) and Sobhana Asha (2/27) who made the early inroads for the Bangalore franchise.
In reply, RCB were in trouble again losing openers Devine and captain Smriti Mandhana with only 14 on the board. Perry and Heather Knight then looked solid till the former was dismissed in the seventh over. Heather, too, perished soon as RCB were reduced to 60/4 after nine overs.
They again faced a tricky situation, but on this occasion, they overcame it. And for that, a lot of credit goes to Kanika Ahuja (46 off 30 balls) as she took the attack to the opposition and unleashed the strokes at the right time to release the pressure off RCB.
Ahuja got good support from keeper-batter Richa Ghosh (31 not out off 32 balls), who played quite an uncharacteristic knock. Importantly, Ghosh was out there till the end.
Following Ahuja’s departure with 20 balls remaining, Richa and Shreyanka Patil (5 not out) saw RCB home comfortably.