Royal Challengers Bangalore became the Champions of WPL 2024 defeating favourites Delhi Capitals in a one-sided contest to be played at Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi on 17th March.
Delhi Capitals captain Meg Lanning won the toss and decided to bat first. It was cautious initially by Varma and Lanning before the explosive hard-hitting Varma showed putting RCB bowlers under immense pressure. Varma and Lanning smashed 19 runs off Renuka Singh’s bowling. At the end of the first six overs, DC raced away to 61 for 0. With that, the first timeout was taken.
Sophie Molineux changed the momentum of the game, picking up 3 wickets in an over. She got rid of Shafali Varma with an impressive catch by Wareham ending 64 runs partnership for the opening wicket. The left-arm spinner then dismissed Jemimah Rodrigues and Alice Capsey in the same over.
Shreyanka Patil produced a magical delivery to dismiss DC captain Meg Lanning. RCB spinners kept a tight leash not allowing DC batters to score runs easily. DC looked in some trouble with the scoreboard reading 80 for 4 at the end of the second timeout. Sobhana Asha struck immediately getting the wickets of Kapp and Jonassen in the same over to derail DC innings.
The night got better for RCB as Molineux produced a direct hit getting rid of Radha Yadav. Shreyanka Patil dismissed Arundhati Reddy and then Taniya Bhatia with a review for caught behind. It was a brilliant bowling display to bowl out DC for 113 in 18.3 overs. Shreyanka Patil took 4 for 12, Sophie Molineux 3 for 20, and Sobhana Asha 2 for 14.
Chasing 114 runs to win, it was a cautious start by Smriti Mandhana and Sophie Devine against disciplined Delhi Capitals bowling. At the end of the first six overs, RCB scored 25 for 0.
Devine took charge with 18 runs off Radha Yadav’s bowling to change the momentum. At the end of the first timeout, RCB scored 43 for 0. Shikha Pandey struck dismissing Devine. Devine and Mandhana added 49 laying a foundation for a win. Smriti Mandhana and Ellyse Perry played according to the situation with occasional boundaries.
Minnu Mani dismissed Mandhana with an impressive catch by Arundhati Reddy at mid-on. Mandhana and Perry added 33 runs for the 2nd wicket. The second timeout was taken with the scoreboard reading 82 for 2. Richa Ghosh hit the winning runs with a boundary as RCB won the match by 8 wickets with 3 balls to spare. Ghosh and Perry added unbeaten 33 runs for the 3rd wicket.
Here we look at the List of Awards
- Player of Match Award (Sophie Molineux)– The Australian left-arm spinner Sophie Molineux was named the player of the match award for her match-changing over dismissing Shafali Varma, Rodrigues, and Alice Capsey. She finished with figures of 3 for 20 in 4 overs.
- Most Sixes of Match– Shafali Varma won the award for most sixes in the finals. She smashed 3 sixes in her 44-run knock (5 Lakhs)
- Electric Striker Of Match– Shafali Varma won the award for electric striker of the match. She won the award with a strike rate of 162.96 (1 Lakh).
- Fair Player Award– Royal Challengers Bangalore won the Fair Play Award for upholding the spirit of the game.
- Most Sixes Award– Shafali Varma won the most sixes award hit in the tournament. She smashed a total of 20 sixes in the entire tournament (5 Lakhs)
- Best Catch Of Season– Sanjeevan Sajana won the best catch of season award that she took to dismiss Sophie Ecclestone of UP Warriorz (5 Lakhs)
- Electric Striker Of the Season– Royal Challengers Bangalore Georgia Wareham won the award for the highest strike rate award. She made 111 runs with a strike rate of 163.23 and scored valuable runs during the eliminator against Mumbai Indians (5 Lakhs)
- Most Valuable Player– UP Warriorz Deepti Sharma won the Most Valuable Player. She scored 295 runs from nine matches with 3 half-centuries. With the ball, Deepti took 10 wickets (5 Lakhs)
- Emerging Player Of The Season– Shreyanka Patil was awarded the Emerging Player Of the Season. She missed a few matches due to an injury and grabbed a total of 13 wickets including a record-breaking 4 wickets in the finals against Delhi Capitals (5 Lakhs).
- Purple Cap Award– RCB’s Shreyanka Patil was awarded the Purple Cap Award. She picked up 4 wickets in the finals and ended the tournament as the leading wicket-taker (5 Lakhs).
- Orange Cap Award– Australia’s Ellyse Perry got the award of Orange Cap. She scored 347 runs in 10 matches and surpassed Meg Lanning’s record of most runs in a single edition (5 Lakhs).
- Runners-Up– Delhi Capitals finished as the runners-up of WPL for the second successive time (3 Crore)
- Winners– Royal Challengers Bangalore emerged as winners for the first time in WPL history (6 Crore).
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