WPL 2023: Gujarat Giants hand Royal Challengers Bangalore third straight defeat

Mumbai: Gujarat Giants handed Royal Challengers Bangalore their third consecutive defeat within the Women’s Premier League (WPL) right here on Wednesday, profitable a high-scoring contest by 11 runs to file their first victory in three matches.

After splendid half-centuries from Sophia Dunkley (65) and Harleen Deol (67) propelled Gujarat Giants to a powerful 201 for 7 after batting first, their bowlers did a good job, limiting RCB to 190 for six of their 20 overs.

RCB opener and New Zealand batter Sophie Devine largely performed a lone hand of their chase, hitting a well-made 66 from 45 balls with eight fours and two sixes.

Towards the top, Heather Knight (30 not out off 11 balls) supplied RCB a glimmer of hope, however the problem of scoring 33 runs off the final two overs and 24 off the ultimate over proved an excessive amount of for the Bangalore aspect.

RCB’s star batter and captain Smriti Mandhana flopped as soon as once more, falling for 18 whereas Ellyse Perry (32) additionally couldn’t rating massive regardless of getting a begin and forming an important partnership of 43 runs with Devine for the second wicket.

“Even in our bowling, we gave away 10-15 runs more than what we expected to. There were two three overs where we conceded a lot, and not 6-7 runs,” Mandhana stated after the match.

“We would have gotten better (with the target) otherwise. It’s a good outfield, one end is really short, that did play with few of our bowlers’ in mind, we are trying to work on it.” After conceding greater than 200 runs for second time in three matches to this point within the WPL, RCB seemed set to problem the goal set by Gujarat Giants when Devine took the aggressive route and Mandhana performed the second fiddle within the powerplay.

The right-handed New Zealand batter hit Kim Garth for a few fours within the third over and acquired three boundaries in opposition to Annabel Sutherland within the fifth.

The opening partnership lasted for five.1 overs with Mandhana and Devine including 54 runs, when the primary breakthrough was supplied by Ashleigh Gardner, who had the RCB captain caught at mid-on by Mansi Joshi.

In the tenth over, Gujarat captain Sneh Rana took a tough blow to her palms off a robust return stroke from Perry. Rana did full the over after preliminary remedy however left the sphere quickly after.

Perry and Devine stored the ship regular however lack of boundaries resulted in stress steadily rising on them. The right-handed Perry cracked two fours off Joshi within the twelfth over, however hit one straight to brief third man fielder having made 32 off 25 balls with 5 fours in whole.

It was not till the primary ball of the 14th over that RCB hit their first six, with Devine clearing the ropes in opposition to Tanuja Kanwar to interrupt the shackles as RCB wanted one other 85 from the final six overs at an asking charge of 14.

With 77 wanted off the final 5 overs, Gardner dealt one other blow to RCB, cleansing up the hard-hitting Richa Ghosh for 10.

Gujarat Giants stand-in captain Sneh Rana lauded the hassle by her gamers.

“Defending here in CCI is never easy, I know it was a tough game, a high scoring game. We lived up to the game,” she stated.

“We are a balanced team, we have good batters and we have a good combination of players. It’s something we were looking for from the first win and now we have got it (the win).” Earlier, Beth Mooney continued to stay off the sphere as Rana received the toss and elected to bat first for Gujarat Giants.

England’s Dunkley and Deol made robust contributions, with the previous taking part in an aggressive knock to supplied a powerful headstart and the latter consolidating the innings with a number of different batters in tow.

Dunkley struck her runs at a strike charge of 232.1, clobbering 11 fours and three sixes to race away for 65 from simply 28 balls whereas Deol top-scored with 67 from simply 45 balls, hitting 9 fours and one six throughout her keep within the center.

Dunkley additionally recorded the quickest fifty of the WPL to this point.

Deol was concerned in two fifty-plus stands that laid the inspiration for an enormous whole, with an opposition crew recording a complete in extra of 200 for the second time in three matches in opposition to RCB on the Brabourne Stadium right here.

Deol, who moved as much as the third spot within the listing of most run-scorers in WPL (113 runs), additionally acquired two lifelines late in her innings.

Dunkley unleashed her energy sport after a gradual begin, welcoming Renuka Singh with a ravishing lofted six over the quilt area.

The England batter took a particular liking for Bose, hitting the RCB spinner for 4 boundaries and a six within the fifth over to gather 23 runs and produce up a shocking 18-ball 50, with the assistance of 9 fours and two sixes.
The right-handed batter continued her assault, hitting a six and a 4 off Shreyanka Patil to carry up her 50-run stand with Deol off simply 26 balls. Patil, nevertheless, had Dunkley hitting one straight to Heather Knight at lengthy off to finish her innings.