Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) finally got lucky for the first time in the Women’s Premier League (WPL 2023) after 5 consecutive losses in the last 12 days. In their sixth match of the tournament, Smriti Mandhana-led Bangalore beat UP by 5 wickets and opened their account against UP Warriors. Bangalore, who had lost previously due to poor bowling throughout the tournament, finally showed lethal bowling, restricting UP to just 135 runs. After this, 20-year-old Indian batsman Kanika Ahuja and Richa Ghosh’s innings and partnership led RCB to win 12 balls earlier.
DY Patil Stadium finally proved lucky for Bangalore and two uncapped players from India made it special. First, 31-year-old Shobana Asha stopped UP from getting a big score by trapping the batters with her leg spin and then Kanika Ahuja won the team in a difficult situation by playing an excellent innings. Apart from them, New Zealand’s legendary captain Sophie All-rounder played a bigger role with ball and bat in two overs.
RCB got off to a good start with Sophie Devine, who dismissed both UP openers Devika Vaidya and captain Alyssa Healy in the first over. Viaidya was lbw and Healy was caught at midwicket . After a while the situation got worse and UP lost 5 wickets in just 8.1 overs with McGrath , Navgire (22) & Simran (2) getting out cheaply with the ball swinging in initial overs.
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After this, Grace Harris and Deepti Sharma had a tremendous partnership to bring the team to a better position. 69 runs shared in 7 overs between the two and reached 100 runs. Harris was looking dangerous as she started hitting big shots while Deepti too grew in confidence before she was caught in the deep off Perry for 22 which triggered another collapse as Harris (46 off 32 balls) was caught behind trying to hook Perry . A flurry of wickets fall after that . In the end, Sophie Ecclestone also added some runs, but the team was all out for 135 runs in 19.3 overs.
RCB bowlers performed well. Sophie Devine took 2 wickets for 23 runs in 4 overs. Sobhana Asha (2/27) also did well and quickly took 2 wickets. Ellyse Perry took the wickets of Dipti and Harris in the same over and stopped the big score.
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Sophie Devine created a storm in the first over, both with the ball and with the bat. She gave a fast start by hitting 2 fours and 1 six in this over but got out on the last ball to Harris . Captain Smriti Mandhana’s bad run continued and she was bowled without opening the account in the next over by Deepti
Elysse Perry (10) and Heather Knight (24) put on a short partnership at the crease for a while but both were out within 3 overs. The score of RCB in 9 overs was 4 wickets for 60 runs, of which two wickets were taken by Indian spinner Deepti Sharma.
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From here, 20-year-old Kanika Ahuja took over the innings and started hitting the boundaries as soon as she arrived. Between the last ball of the 10th over and the second ball of the 13th over, Kanika hit 6 fours and 1 six to bring back the team on track.
During this Richa Ghosh strengthened the partnership while playing comfortably. The partnership of 60 runs in 7.4 overs between the two sealed the win. Kanika failed to score a half-century and got out on a brilliant 46 runs (30 balls, 8 fours, 1 six). Richa (31 not out) and Shreyanka Patil (5) then finished the match.
Kanika Ahuja won the player of the match after her fine innings .