Royal Challengers Bangalore win their first WPL game beating UP Warriorz by five wickets
Navi Mumbai, Mar 15: Buoyed by Virat Kohli's pep talk, Royal Challengers Bangalore continued to fight for another day as they notched their maiden five-wicket victory over UP Warriorz after five consecutive defeats in the Women's Premier League, here on Wednesday.
After a collective show from their bowlers led by Ellyse Perry, whose 3/16 ensured UP Warriorz were bowled out for a moderate 135 in 19.3 overs, RCB sailed past the target with 20-year-old Kanika Ahuja playing the match-winning knock of 46 off 30 balls with eight fours and one six. She put on a 60-run stand with India keeper Richa Ghosh (31 not out from 32 balls, 3x4s, 1x6s) who played the second fiddle to perfection.
Ahuja and Ghosh had joined forces at a stage from where the game could have gone either way, with RCB having lost four wickets with 60 runs on the board and a tricky challenge in front of them.
But the two young batters played with a lot of conviction and command, not allowing UP Warriorz any opportunity to make further inroads until they had ensured a win for their side.
RCB had a poor start, losing the in-form Sophie Devine for 14 after early aggression, and captain Smriti Mandhana (0), who had to endure yet another flop show with the bat. The RCB captain was cleaned up by Deepti Sharma off the third ball she faced.
Devika Vaidya got the key breakthrough in the seventh over getting Perry (10) caught by Sophie Ecclestone and in the ninth, Deepti Sharma removed the dangerous Heather Knight (24), caught by Kiran Navgire, with 60 runs on the board.
In the first half of the game, Perry was magnificent with the ball for RCB despite being introduced late.
The right-arm seamer halted UP Warriorz's charge when the pair of Grace Harris (46) and Deepti (22) threatened to take the game away from RCB, and also accounted for Shweta Sehrawat (6) to record figures of 4-0-16-3.
Harris missed a deserving half-century, falling for 46 off 32 balls with five fours and two sixes.
Harris and Deepti led the recovery for UP Warriorz tottering at one stage at 31/5 with a brisk 69-run stand that took them past the 100-run mark. Harris made most of a lifeline given by Richa Ghosh, who missed a regulation stumping off Sobhana Asha when the batter was only on nine.
Devine set the tone in RCB's favour with two wickets in the first over to return with 4-0-23-2, Sobhana Asha got plenty of turn during a largely impactful 4-0-27-2 and Megan Schutt produced a measly spell of 4-0-21-1 to cap off a combined bowling show for RCB.
Earlier before the start of the contest, the former RCB captain Virat Kohli met the team and also had a talk with Mandhana, whose torrid run with the bat continued.
In their previous meeting at the Brabourne Stadium on March 10, UP Warriorz had crushed RCB by a massive 10-wickets in a one-sided game with Alyssa Healy scoring a stunning 96 not out in the winning cause.
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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
