The prowess of Shafali Verma’s strokes and the expertise of Meg Lanning mixed with a sensational opening wicket partnership of 162 runs to information Delhi Capitals to a convincing 60-run win over Royal Challengers Bangalore within the first match of the Women’s Premier League, right here on Sunday.
American left-arm pacer Tara Norris then got here to the get together, taking a fifty for DC to complete off the Smriti Mandhana-led facet.
A day after her Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur led Mumbai Indians to 207/5 within the event’s opening match, 19-year-old Shafali took the WPL to a brand new degree along with her explosive efficiency of 84 off simply 45 balls (10×). raised to new heights. 4, 4×6).
Five-time World Cup-winning Australian skipper Lanning was additionally at his attacking greatest with a 43-ball 72 (14×4) because the duo dismantled a haphazard RCB assault and took the WPL rating to 223/2.
In reply, RCB made a promising begin however USA left-arm pacer Tara Norris (4-0-29-5) and Elise Capse (2-0-10-2) took them to 163 for eight in stipulated time. pulled as much as 20 overs.
Norris, who turned the primary Associate participant within the WPL, despatched again half of her batsmen by way of the star-studded RCB middle-order to select up the wickets of Ellyse Perry (31), Richa Ghosh (2) and Heather Knight (34). 93 runs in 12.2 overs from the hut.
She bowled with tempo and bought her maiden WPL fifty with the scalp of Kanika Ahuja.
India’s vice-captain and WPL’s costliest participant Smriti Mandhana and Sophie Devine fired on all cylinders. At the four-over mark, they had been 41 for no loss, nicely forward of DC’s 29/0 on the similar stage.
But English off-spinner Capsy triggered a shocking collapse, dismissing each in successive overs. He accounted for 14 (11b; 3×4) for the Kiwi batsman on debut when Shafali took an outstanding diving catch. Mandhana then gifted her wicket to Shikha Pandey.
The defeat reminded of RCB’s 140-run defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders within the Indian Premier League within the inaugural version in 2008, after they had been bundled out for 82 in reply to KKR’s 222/3.
Earlier, DC bought off to a dream begin with Shafali and Lanning minting runs. Heather Knight gave RCB one thing to cheer about within the fifteenth over when the England skipper dismissed each of them along with her off-spin.
Knight cleaned up her Australian counterpart with a fuller supply, and only one supply later, Shafali edged Richa Ghosh with a high-quality supply and accomplished a superb catch to seal the double blow.
But, it was too little too late for the RCB camp because the DC duo’s stupendous opening partnership of 162 off 87 balls set the tone for a 200-plus rating. It was then left to Marijan Kapp and Jemimah Rodrigues for the ultimate flourish, including 59 runs within the again finish.
Fresh from his T20 World Cup exploits, the South African batsman hit three sixes and three fours in his 17-ball 39 not out, whereas Jemimah was nicely supported with a 15-ball 22 (3×4).
A compact-looking Shafali by no means made a flawed transfer, and picked up unfastened balls nicely to convey up her 31-ball fifty with a single off Megan Schutt.
In the subsequent over, the inimitable Australian skipper Lanning introduced up her half-century off 30 balls, hitting Heather Knight at high-quality leg.
After beginning with 12 fours within the powerplay, Delhi reached the 100-run mark on the midway mark because the duo confirmed good tempo within the center overs.
While the batting of the pair was wonderful, Lanning and Shafali had enjoyable towards some clumsy bowling from the RCB bowlers.
In her WPL captaincy debut, Smriti Mandhana used seven bowlers after making the daring transfer of bowling at batting-friendly Brabourne.
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
