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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Stalin takes veiled dig at Palaniswami for doing ''politics'' by donning a farmer''s garb
Tiruvannamalai (PTI): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Saturday took a veiled dig at AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami saying some do politics by donning the garb of a farmer and yet support laws that are detrimental to ryots.
In his address after inaugurating an agriculture expo and seminar here, the chief minister said that in giving priority to agriculture and farmers, "our Dravidian model government is a pioneer."
As soon as the DMK assumed office in 2021, the Department of Agriculture was renamed as "Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department."
Taking a veiled dig at the BJP, and DMK President said "some will change names according to their whims and fancies, but they will make farmers helpless and prompt them to hit the streets to stage protest."
The reference is perceived to be aimed at the BJP and the three controversial farm laws that were repealed later by the Centre following protests by farmers.
Furthermore, apparently targeting AIADMK chief Palaniswami, Stalin said, "some others engage in politics by donning the garb of a farmer."
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"However, they support laws that affect farmers; they will trivialise the struggles of farmers."
Stalin said that unlike others, for the Dravidian model government, the welfare and growth of farmers alone is important.
"That was why we thought of raising the income of farmers by increasing production and productivity," the CM noted.
As part of steps to achieve that goal, a separate budget --encompassing a slew of welfare measures-- for agriculture was introduced.
So far, 5 agri-budgets have been presented in the Assembly and in total, Rs 1.94 lakh crore was the allocation. The last agri-budget alone had an allocation of Rs 45,661 crore and when compared to allocation made in 2021-22, it was a 33 per cent increase.
The chief minister said: "Today, technology has advanced so much. Science and technology have progressed to the extent that tasks which used to take many hours can now be completed in a few minutes, and work done by hundreds of people can now be accomplished by a few machines."
Only when such advancement reaches the hands of farmers, it would transform into true development.
"We are organising these agricultural exhibitions so that you do not have to wander in search of these technologies," the CM said told the farmers.
Wondering if it was enough to hold only an exhibition, Stalin said, in order to make farmers understand concepts and use advancements, discussions with agricultural scientists in as many as 13 topics have been arranged to benefit them.
Through such seminars, farmers could learn new cultivation methods and agricultural business opportunities, he added.
On the occasion, the CM distributed welfare assistance to farmers, marking distribution to as many as 518 farmers, worth about Rs 9.43 crore.
The 2-day exhibition (on Dec 27 and 28, 2025 at Tirukovilur Road) that was inaugurated by the chief minister here was the third such event held by the state government this year. The first expo was held in June at Perunthurai in Erode district and the second was held at Chennai Trade Centre in the month of September.
In a separate government function held at Malappambadi in the district, the chief minister inaugurated as many 314 projects which includes new buildings for state-run healthcare facilities, government offices and a new police station in Tiruvannamalai (New Temple PS) town.
He laid foundation stone for 46 initiatives including a new paddy godown to be set up at Vembakkam. Also, he distributed welfare assistance --which includes housing pattas, houses under Kalaignar Kanavu Illam Thittam and crop loans-- to beneficiaries marking commencement of distribution to as many as 2,66,194 beneficiaries.
All such initiatives (including projects inaugurated by the CM) are cumulatively worth about Rs 2095.07 crore, the government said.
