Vadodara, 5 February. With the explosive half-centuries of captain Smriti Mandhana (87 runs, 41 balls, three sixes, 12 fours) and Georgia Woll (79 runs, 54 balls, 14 fours) and a century partnership between the two, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB-W) defeated Delhi Capitals (DC-W) by six wickets with two balls remaining in the high-scoring thrilling final of the Women’s Premier League (WPL-4) here on Thursday. Won the title for the second time equal to Mumbai Indians (MI-W). Whereas Delhi team had to face final disappointment for the fourth time in a row.

Delhi had made a strong score of 203 runs with Jemima’s half-century.

Delhi Capitals, forced to bat first under the floodlights of Kotambi Stadium, scored a strong score of 203 for four wickets under the leadership of captain Jemimah Rodrigues (57 runs, 37 balls, eight fours) with useful contributions from other batsmen.

Smriti’s century partnership with Georgia RCB completed ‘record chase’

But with the valuable century partnership of 165 runs between Smriti and Georgia on the second wicket, RCB completed the biggest ‘record chase’ in the final so far and achieved a spectacular victory by scoring 204 runs for four wickets in 19.4 overs. Chinelle Henry (2-34) and Nandini (1-41) tried to make a comeback for Delhi Capitals in the last overs, but could not save the team from defeat.

While chasing a tough target, RCB lost the wicket of Grace Harris (nine runs) in the second over itself, who was bowled by Henry. But after this Smriti and Georgia took such a lead that the opposition bowlers were defeated. In this sequence, Georgia completed her half-centuries in 37 balls and Smriti completed her half-centuries in 22 balls. The team crossed the 100-run mark in 10 overs and 150 runs came in 14 overs.

Smriti and Voll scored 165 runs in 92 balls.

RCB needed 42 runs to win in the last five overs. Then in the 17th over, Meenu Mani got Georgia caught by Shefali and broke the partnership of 165 runs with Smriti in just 92 balls. Richa Ghosh (six runs) hit a four on Nandini, but was caught by Meenu after two balls.

18 runs were needed in the last two overs. De Klerk hit a four on Henry, but the fast bowler bowled Smriti. Eight runs were scored in the 19th over. In the last over, the batsmen had to score 10 runs to win and Radha Yadav (12 not out, five balls, two fours) took the team to the target with two consecutive fours on Shri Charani.

Apart from Rodriguez, Volwart, Liesel Lee and Henry played brilliant innings.

Before this, apart from Jemimah Rodrigues, Laura Wolvaert (44 runs, 25 balls, two sixes, three fours) and opening batsman duo Lizelle Lee (37 runs, 30 runs, three sixes, three fours) and Henry (35 not out, 15 balls, two sixes, four fours) played brilliant innings for Delhi Capitals.

score card

In the same sequence, Shefali Verma (20 runs, 13 balls, three fours) and Lizelle Lee added 49 runs on 35 balls for the first wicket, while for the third wicket, 76 runs were added on 51 balls between Rodriguez and Wolvaert. Then Henry along with Vollwart scored 55 runs in 24 balls and took the team’s score beyond 200. But in the end, Smriti and Georgia thwarted the efforts of the opposition batsmen with their stormy attacks.