Smriti Mandhana leads RCB to a 23-run triumph against UP Warriorz

The Bengaluru leg of the competition concluded with a thrilling victory for Royal Challengers Bangalore. While UP Warriorz had suffered a second-leg loss to the Smriti Mandhana-led team this season, RCB has resumed its winning ways.

With defeats in their past two games, RCB was barely behind UPW in fourth place on the points chart. However, when the competition moves to Delhi for the second half, the Royal Challengers are back in contention. Asked to bat first, the hosts scored 198/3, the best total thus far this season, owing to Smriti’s 50-ball 80. Ayssa Healy also led from the front with the bat, but her half-century was insufficient as UPW finished on 175/8.

Alyssa Healy’s UP Warriorz won the toss and elected to bowl first. However, they were unable to capitalise, as the Royal Challengers reached their target of 199 runs at a cost of three wickets. Elysse Perry and Smriti Mandhana both scored half-centuries. Richa Ghosh’s undefeated 10-ball-21-run cameo came after Ellyse Perry blasted 58 runs in 37 balls with four boundaries and three sixes each. The RCB captain hit ten fours and three sixes to score 80 runs off 50 balls. Only three bowlers—Sophie Ecclestone, Deepti Sharma, and Anjali Sarvani—captured a wicket for the Warriorz, while no other UP bowler was able to finish their four overs.

Alyssa Healy, the captain, and Kiran Navgire got the Warriorz off to a fast start in the chase, but the RCB quickly gained control as they dropped three wickets in rapid succession. Deepti Sharma got up and hammered 33 runs off only 20 balls after Healy (55-off-38) was removed, but she was unable to seal the Warriorz’s triumph.

UP Warriorz had begun well in their record quest of 199 runs, maintaining the run rate throughout the powerplay overs. After giving a maiden over to Renuka Singh, skipper Alyssa Healy looked ominous as she put together a rapid 47-run partnership with Kiran Navgire for the first wicket.
Navgire performed her job, scoring 18 off 11 balls before falling on the second ball of the fifth over. The stage was set for Chamari Athapaththu, one of the most aggressive hitters in women’s cricket, to demonstrate her abilities. The Sri Lankan opened her innings by smashing two boundaries before being trapped in front of the wicket by Georgia Wareham.

And this is where the game changed. The umpire ruled Athapaththu not out after the ball struck the left-hander in the leg stump while turning into her. RCB reviewed immediately and appeared confident in their decision. Following this occurrence in the seventh over, UP lost a string of wickets at rapid intervals, finally losing the match by 23 runs. Without Deepti Sharma’s rearguard performance (33 off 22), UP would not have gone close to achieving their 178-run target.

Smriti Mandhana, RCB captain: “After the last two matches, we were under the pump. We had to come out today and get going. Losing the toss did not help but that was the chat – that the intent has to be right from the start. Meghana was crucial at the top to get us going and then Richa at the end. The bowlers did well too. Healy was going nicely and we did well to pull it back. Got a little lucky on 26 but I will take that, we just wanted to win. The practice was good, playing domestic really helped. Just grinding it out, and playing more on Indian wickets – it was good preparation. I was really confident, and once you get the feel, you just want to choose which areas you want to target. First 50-plus partnership, she made me run a lot of twos, which was great. The only chat was using the short side and we thought of seeing Ecclestone off. That chat was really important. A lot of times she said I will go, you wait and vice versa. We never thought we were out of the game. Chasing 198, we knew they were going to go hard. We had to keep doing things right, target the stumps and at different times, different bowlers took up the pressure and got us the breakthroughs.”

Ellyse Perry: “All games we have played here have been amazing. Best atmosphere I have played in front of in my career. It is just a cool feeling to have that support, we are very lucky. We have played a lot of cricket in the last two months and felt I had a pretty good handle on the game. Had a great chance tonight to get myself in with Smriti hitting as well as she was. It was really good fun. We are trying to pride ourselves on our fielding and trying to put in those extra yards. Tricky when there is a left-right combination but I think we had a good fielding effort. To hold on the way we did, with the ball and in the field, it is great for the girls. I was a bit worried, not sure I have insurance to cover me. So, in a bit of strife there.”