The Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2024 has just concluded on 17th of March. The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) were the champions on the eve of the final at Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi. The Smriti Mandhana-led side defeated Meg Lanning’s Delhi Capitals (DC) to lift the trophy in the tournament’s second edition.
It was a close-fought game between DC, the runners-up last year, and RCB, who qualified in the WPL final for the first time. After their last year’s defeat against Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals also faced another setback this year. The Bengaluru-based franchise(RCB) finally ended their 16-year-long drought to lift their first premier league title. The RCB Women’s team achieved the feat in the second edition of the WPL, whereas the men’s team couldn’t win the tournament in 16 years of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
RCB Women Spinner Supremacy:
RCB spinners duo Sophie Molineux and Shreyanka Patil stole the show in the big event of the final. However, in the first innings, DC skipper Lanning and opener Shafali Verma were hitting the ball quite well. The DC openers put up a 64-run stand before Sophie Molineux struck thrice in the eighth over, sending Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, and Alice Capsey back to the dugout.
While the skipper Meg Lanning looked to anchor the innings thereafter, she got out to Shreyanka Patil in the 11th over. After that DC’s batting lineup collapsed from 64/0 to 81/6 in 14 over. After Molineux’s game-changing over, Asha Sobhana and Patil took charge as the former picked up two wickets and the latter registered 4/12 in 3.3 overs of her spell. With the clinical spin bowling performance, RCB managed to restrict DC to 113 in 18.3 overs.
The chase wasn’t an easy one for the RCB Women, as DC bowlers kept things under control to build pressure. Nevertheless, with the brilliant composure shown by skipper Mandhana along with Sophie Devine, Ellyse Perry, and Richa Ghosh, RCB sealed the deal in the final over with three balls and eight wickets to spare and got their hands on the prized silverware.
List of awards and WPL prize money won by players
Winners: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), INR 6 crore
Runners-up: Delhi Capitals (DC), INR 3 crore
Orange Cap: Ellyse Perry (RCB), INR 5 lakh
Purple Cap: Shreyanka Patil (RCB), INR 5 lakh
Most Valuable Player of the Season: Deepti Sharma (UPW), INR 5 lakh
Emerging Player of the Season: Shreyanka Patil (RCB), INR 5 lakh
Powerful Striker of the Season: Georgia Wareham (RCB), INR 5 lakh
Most Sixes of the Season: Shafali Verma (DC), INR 5 lakh
Best Catch of the Season: S Sajana (MI), INR 5 lakh
Player of the Final: Sophie Molineux (RCB), INR 2.5 lakh
Powerful Striker of the Final: Shafali Verma (DC), INR 1 lakh
Fairplay Award: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)