Bengaluru, Mar 3: A measured fifty by captain Meg Lanning drove Delhi Capitals to an adequate 163 for eight against Gujarat Giants in their Women's Premier League match here on Sunday.
Lanning (55, 41b, 6x4, 1x6) used her experience to pace her innings well and build a couple of good partnerships after Giants opted to field first.
Both the teams made two changes apiece for this match.
Giants replaced injured Harleen Deol and Sneha Rana with Tarannum Pathan and Veda Krishnamoorthy, while the Capitals rested pacer Marizanne Kapp and Minnu Mani, bringing in Annabelle Sutherland and pacer Titas Sadhu.
Shafali Verma (13, 9b), as usual, flew off the traps with a six and four off left-arm spinner Tanuja Kanwar but her cameo came to an end very soon.
Verma's uppish flick of pacer Meghana Singh, the most successful Gujarat bowler with a three-wicket haul, went straight to Laura Wolvaardt near backward square leg.
The dismissal brought Lanning, who was dropped on 30, and in-form Alice Capsey together. They scored 38 runs for the second wicket, helping Delhi to reach 51 for 1 in the Power Play segment.
Once Capsey departed, an edgy Jemimah Rodrigues (7 off 10) helped Lanning add 47 runs for the third wicket. Lanning shed her low-gear approach during this passage to pull some top shots out of the draw such as a massive hit for six over long-off off Kathryn Bryce.
Lanning reached her fifty in 39 balls but could not stay in the middle for long as her slash off Meghana settled in the hands of D Hemalatha at cover point.
The return of Lanning to the dug-out dashed Delhi's attempt to up the scoring rate as they lost wickets at regular intervals and also failed to fetch a boundary for 24 balls between 15.2 and 19.3 overs.
The Giants could have restricted their rivals to a much lower total had they been a tad sharper on the field.
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Dandeli: In an incident reported on Sunday, a bus carrying school students who had come to Dandeli for a trip reportedly overturned in the middle of the road.
The accident occurred as the group was returning to Dandeli after engaging in water sports at Ganeshgudi.
Reports suggest that the bus, carrying students from St. Anthony's High School in Hosadurga, Chitradurga district, overturned into a roadside gutter after the driver lost control of the vehicle.
Locals and resort staff nearby promptly came to the rescue, pulling the children from the wreckage and arranging for their transport to Dandeli Government Hospital using ambulances. Among the rescuers were locals Rafiq Kutty, Irshad Khan, Ashfaq Naika, Mehboob Mujawar, and Ramesh Nadara, whose swift actions were instrumental in ensuring the injured received immediate medical attention.
The injured students are currently undergoing treatment at Dandeli Government Hospital. Police from the Ramanagara Station have visited the site and are conducting an investigation into the cause of the accident.