After losing five matches in a row, Royal Challengers Bangalore now have tasted two back to back wins in the Women’s Premier League. After their win over UP Warriorz on Wednesday, they have now beaten the Gujarat Giants side in a comfortable run chase at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai on Saturday. Sophie Devine was the star of the night for Bangalore as she scored a 99 and might have missed out on a well-deserved hundred but helped her team finish the match with 27 balls to spare.
After the Gujarat Giants won the toss and chose to bat first, they even scored a competitibe 188/4 in their 20 overs riding on great knocks from Laura Wolvaardt (68) and Ashleigh Gardner (41). However, their efforts were drafted with the kind of innings Devine later player in the day, scoring 99 runs of just 36 deliveries completely dominating the oppsoition bowlers. Her knock was studded with 9 fours and 8 sixes and it is a shame that such an innings fell one short of a hundred.
It wasn’t the best of the nights for the bowlers but even on one such night Devine had managed to find a wicket, conceding 23 runs in her 3 overs. Preeti Bose and Shreyanka Patil were the other wicket-takers for Bangalore. As far as Gujarat are concerned, they could only take two wickets and saw the Bangalore openers add 125 runs for the opening wicket off just 57 balls that just set the stage for their win.
Captain Smriti Mandhana scored 37 off 31 and was the first wicket to fall, getting out to Sneh Rana. Kim Garth picked the only other wicket to fall, getting rid of Devine when almost everyone was expecting her to breach the three-figure mark. Ellyse Perry and Heather Knight finished off the chase to ensure Bangalore now have four points against their name with one more match to go.
