WPL: Richa, Kanika lead RCB to an impressive win

New Delhi: Despite scoring a formidable total of 201 in their 20 overs, Gujarat Giants fell short as a result of missed opportunities in the field, ultimately losing by six wickets to defending champions Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the opening match of the third edition of the Women's Premier League (WPL) in Vadodara.

Set 202 to win, RCB thrived on a stunning 27-ball 64* (7X4, 4X6) from Richa Ghosh and a 34-ball 57 from Ellyse Perry to gun down the target with nine balls to spare. It marked the first occasion of a successful 200-plus run chase in WPL’s brief history and conclusively outshone an equally stunning six-hitting display from GG skipper Ashleigh Gardner.

Both Ghosh and Perry got reprieves from GG fielders -- Ghosh was dropped first ball while Perry got a life twice -- and the explosive wicketkeeper-batter cashed in by adding 93 runs off 37 balls with Kanika Ahuja (30* off 13) for the unbroken fifth-wicket stand.

Earlier, Gardner provided an exhibition of range hitting to take GG to a seemingly winning total. Equally effective against pace and spin, the Australian put RCB bowlers under sustained pressure who, perhaps stunned by the brutal assault, kept pitching either too full or too short.

Gardner read the leg break of Georgia Wareham and Prema Rawat with ease and routinely hopped down the track to pepper the arc between extra cover and deep square leg. Her turbocharged partnership with Deandra Dottin (67 runs off 31 balls) meant GG, who had scored 68/2 in the first ten overs, went at over 13 runs an over in the next ten.

Asked to bat first after RCB won the toss, GG lost Laura Wolvaardt and Dayalan Hemalatha in quick succession but Beth Mooney shored up the innings with a 42-ball 56. After a sedate start, Mooney collected three successive boundaries off Wareham and brought up her fifty off 37 balls. The 31-year-old looked set for a big innings but her knock was cut short when she swept Rawat straight to Mandhana at mid wicket.

With eight overs and seven wickets in hand, the stage was set for big-hitting Dottin and Gardner, and the duo went about their task with clinical efficiency. On WPL debut, Dottin took no time to settle down and hit consecutive fours off pacer Kim Garth to get going. Gardner then tore into Rawat in the next over, smoking her for three consecutive sixes. Nimble on her feet, she charged down the track for the first two, depositing one each over long off and long on, and when the bowler dropped short, Gardner was ready to go deep and hit her over square leg.

Mandhana persisted with Wareham in the next over, and GG batters responded by hitting her for 15 runs. VJ Joshitha’s medium pace bled 14 in the next before Renuka Singh pulled things back with a four-run over. Joshitha’s length balls were punished by Gardner for three sixes in the 18th over, and the last of her eight sixes came in the penultimate over off Wareham as GG amassed 49 runs in last three overs. In the end, it wasn’t nearly enough.

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