Mandhana blitz, disciplined bowlers power RCB to 8-wicket win over Gujarat Giants in WPL
Bengaluru, Feb 27: Captain Smriti Mandhana's blitz and a disciplined effort by bowlers powered Royal Challengers Bangalore to a comprehensive eight-wicket win over sloppy Gujarat Giants in their Women's Premier League match here on Tuesday.
Mandhana (43, 27b, 8x4, 1x6) and S Meghana (36, 28b, 5x4, 1x6), who added 40 runs for the second wicket, made light work of a 108-run target.
Royal Challengers finished their towelling of the Giants in a mere 12.3 overs for their second win on the bounce in this WPL.
They just had to build on the strong foundation laid by the RCB bowlers, who restricted Giants to 107 for 7. Pacer Renuka Singh (2/14) and left-arm spinner Sophie Molineux (3/25) did the star turn for the home side after it opted to bowl.
The RCB chase began with a bang as Mandhana slammed two fours in the first two balls off pacer Lea Tahuhu a drive past the point and a well-timed pull carrying the ball to the fence in a jiffy.
The graceful left-hander added another four through a pull a ball later as RCB amassed 13 runs in the first over.
With boundaries raining, the Bangalore outfit marched to 32 for no loss in the third over but lost Sophine Devine to Ashleigh Gardner in the fourth over.
But her dismissal did not slow down the scoring as Mandhana smoked a six over the head off Tahuhu to keep the momentum going.
A fifty was there for taking, but a tame push off left-arm spinner Tanuja Kanwar cut short her entertaining stint.
Her innings also put in perspective the early struggles of Giants' batters, who limped without timing or power.
There was a certain tackiness on the pitch alright, but the RCB bowlers also hit the right length to keep the Giants batters on a tight leash.
The dismissal of Giants' skipper Beth Mooney (8) was a perfect example for this.
Mooney had struck Renuka for two boundaries earlier, and she immediately changed the line coming around the wicket.
She was rewarded with the big wicket when Mooney failed to tackle a delivery that shaped in to beat her defensive prod.
Renuka soon ousted Phoebe Litchfield too when the Aussie batter failed to drag her feet back inside the crease before Richa Ghosh, standing up, completed her stumping.
The pacer bowled her full quota of four overs on the trot and returned with handsome numbers of 4-0-14-2.
From that point, the Giants kept on losing wickets, including generally quick scorers like Ashleigh Gardner, and it thwarted their attempts to give some steam to the innings.
Dayalan Hemalatha's unbeaten 31 off 25 balls helped them go past the 100-run mark.
They ended the first 10 overs at 44 for two, and the back 10 too did not prove much different as RCB bowlers kept chipping away without conceding too many runs.
That the Giants managed a total of just 10 fours and two sixes in their entire innings underlined their tough time.
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Jharkhand horror: Man kills live-in partner, chops body into 40 pieces
Ranchi (PTI): A 25-year-old man, who works as a butcher, allegedly strangled to death his live-in partner and chopped her body into 40 to 50 pieces in a forested area in Jharkhand’s Khunti district, police said on Wednesday.
The accused, identified as Naresh Bhengra, was arrested.
The matter came to light after around a fortnight after the killing when a stray dog was found with human body parts near Jordag village in Jariagarh police station on November 24.
Bhengra was in a live-in relationship with the deceased, a 24-year-old woman also from Khunti district, in Tamil Nadu for the past couple of years. Sometime back, he returned to Jharkhand, got married to another woman without telling his partner anything and went back to the southern state without his wife to join her.
"The brutal incident occurred on November 8 when they reached Khunti as the accused who had married another woman did not wish to take her home. Instead, he took her to a forest near his house at Jordag village in Jariagarh police station and chopped the body into pieces. The man has been arrested," Khunti Superintendent of Police Aman Kumar told PTI.
Inspector Ashok Singh who investigated the case said the man worked in a butcher shop in Tamil Nadu and was expert in slicing chicken.
“He admitted chopping the body parts of the woman into 40 to 50 pieces before leaving those in the forest for wild animals to feast on. The police recovered several parts on November 24 after a dog in the area was seen with a hand," Singh told PTI.
Singh said that the woman, who was unaware of his marriage, pressured him to return to Khunti. After reaching Ranchi, they boarded a train on November 24 and headed to the man's village.
"Under a plan, the man took her to Khunti in an autorickshaw near his home and asked her to wait. He returned with sharp weapons and strangulated her with her dupatta after raping her. He then cut the body into 40 to 50 pieces and left for his home to live with his wife," Singh said.
The woman, however, had informed her mother that she had boarded a train and would be living with her partner, the police officer said.
Following the recovery of body parts, a bag was also found in the forest with the murdered woman's belongings including her Aadhaar card. The mother of the woman was called at the spot and she identified her daughter's belongings.
"The mother suspected the man behind the crime who after being nabbed by the police admitted to chopping the woman into pieces," the official added.
The incident has sent shockwaves among people in the region, with the Shraddha Walker murder case of 2022 still fresh in their memory.
Walker was killed by her live-in partner who chopped her body into pieces before dumping them in the jungle in South Delhi’s Mehrauli.
