The RCB Women IPL team beat Delhi Women by 8 wickets in the final match to win the maiden IPL title yesterday. With this win, RCB has ended their 16-year-old drought for the IPL trophy. Royal Challengers Bangalore played the WPL final match against Delhi Capitals in Arun Jaitley, New Delhi. After Mumbai Indians won the first Women’s Premier League title in 2023. The RCB Women’s team became the 2nd team to achieve this feat.
RCB had a very comfortable work in the run chase as their target was just 114. They easily chased down the target against DC to lift their maiden WPL title. A clinical first innings performance with the ball from RCB’s spin attack helped them clinch their first-ever trophy as a franchise.
The Match Highlights:
After winning the toss, DC opted to bat first in the final match of WPL 2024. DC openers made a solid start at the beginning of the innings. Both Shafali Verma and Meg Lanning took on Renuka Singh in the fourth over, clobbering her for 19 runs. DC eased their way to 61/0 at the end of the powerplay and they made 64/0 in 7 overs and the match was going well for DC.
Sophie Molineux and Shreyanka Patil broke the top-order DC batting lineup with a spell-binding display of spin bowling in New Delhi. With DC cruising at 64 for no loss, Molinuex came into the attack and turned the game on its head, claiming three wickets in an over. Shafali (44 off 27) attempted a slog sweep but got caught out at deep midwicket. Jemimah Rodrigues (0) was clean bowled as she completely missed her sweep. Alice Capsey (0) attempted a horrible paddle stroke, exposing her stumps, and was knocked over.
Shafali Verma ✅
Jemimah Rodrigues ✅
Alice Capsey ✅That was one incredible 3⃣-wicket over from Sophie Molineux 👏 👏
Watch 🎥 🔽
Follow the match ▶️ https://t.co/g011cfzcFp #TATAWPL | #DCvRCB | #Final | @RCBTweets pic.twitter.com/a6gKyIFhtw
— Women's Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) March 17, 2024
Molineux Turns the Game’s Move:
Molineux ran through DC’s top order and got rid of the dangerous Shafali Varma. Later she also claimed the in-form Jemmimah Rodrigues and the hard-hitting Alice Capsey all in one over. Starting the eighth over at 64 for no loss, the Capitals found themselves at a crumbling stage of 65 for 3 by the end of the over.
Later, Shreyanka also joined in the wicket-taking party for RCB Women. She claimed the wicket of Meg Lanning for 23 with a ball that spun back sharply and caught the DC captain on the back foot. With the wicket of their captain in the 11th over, DC pushed back into further disarray at 74 for 4.
Delhi Capitals lost two more big wickets in the 14th over and slipped down to 81/6. Marizanne Kapp (8) sliced a catch off Sobhana to long-on. Jess Jonassen (3) also perished attempting a big one, hitting one straight up in the air. The DC batting succumbed in the wicket-falling procession against the spinning attack of RCB women. Minnu Mani (5) was trapped lbw by Shreyanka when she tried to paddle a length ball and missed it completely.
Radha Yadav (12) ran herself out with a direct hit from Molineux following a complete lack of communication with Arundhati Reddy. Shreyanka dismissed Reddy for 10 and Taniya Bhatia for a duck in the 19th over as DC were all out for 113. Sophie Molineux & Shreyanka Patil bowled superbly and claimed 7 wickets from the DC batting lineup. Sophie Molineux bowled magnificently and took 3 wickets by conceding 20 runs with her entire quota of 4 overs. Shreyanka bowled 3.3 overs, conceded 12 runs, and picked up 4 crucial wickets.
Experienced Troops Led RCB in Title-Clinching Run Chase:
RCB started their innings with a slow start in the powerplay, where Sophie & Mandhana got only 25 runs in the powerplay. Devine broke the shackles in the 7th over of the innings, the over of Radha Yadav. She hit three 4’s and a six in that over with 18 runs altogether. Both the openers got 49 runs in 8.1 overs and were going well before Shikha Pandey got rid of Devine(32).
Devine was trapped LBW as she tried to hit one across the line. Mandhana and Perry steadied the run chase while adding 33 for the second wicket. In the 15th over, Smriti top-edged a tossed-up delivery from Mani and was caught for 31.
Perry Finished the things Off
Perry was the hero of RCB from the semi-finals. Here in the final, she also steadied the innings and provided support to Mandhana. However, because of their cautious approach, the run rate started to climb up. With 12 overs gone, RCB needed 53 runs to win off 48 deliveries. Lanning used Shikha very well and exhausted all her overs early. She ended her spell, having claimed Devine’s wicket while leaking just 11 runs in four overs.
Perry (35* off 37) and Richa Ghosh (17*) took RCB past the finish line. Ghosh buried the ghost of her run-out the last time these two sides met by hitting the winning runs. She lofted Reddy for a four over extra cover to kick off celebrations in the Bangalore camp.
Raw Emotions ☺️
Pure Jubilation 🙌
𝗠. 𝗢. 𝗢. 𝗗 straight after a memorable title triumph; ft. Royal Challengers Bangalore 🏆 🔝#TATAWPL | #Final | #DCvRCB | @RCBTweets pic.twitter.com/WQFeNTxOls
— Women's Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) March 18, 2024
Player of The Match of WPL 2024 Final:
Molineux bowled brilliantly in the match for RCB women and claimed three wickets. Shreyanka on the other hand was very impressive with the ball and picked up four wickets. While batting, Mandhana, Devine, and Perry all made handy contributions. For DC, Shafali top-scored with 44, while Pandey was very economical with 1/11 from four overs. Left-arm spinner Sophie Molineux was named the Player of the Match for her brilliant bowling effort in the final.