Royal Challengers Bangalore win maiden WPL title
New Delhi, India - Royal Challengers Bangalore won their maiden Women's Premier League (WPL) title after their spinners restricted Delhi Captials to 113, setting the stage for an eight-wicket victory with just three balls to spare in New Delhi on Sunday.
Chasing a modest total, Bangalore started slowly and weathered the loss of openers Sophie Devine (32) and captain Smriti Mandhana (31) before Ellyse Perry (35 not out) and Richa Ghosh (17 not out) led them to victory in the final over.
Delhi captain Meg Lanning won the toss and chose to bat,
the same decision she made last year when her team lost the final of the inaugural edition to Mumbai Indians.
Shafali Verma (44) and Lan
ning (23) started well with a blistering 64-run opening stand in seven overs before Sophie Molineux (3-20) put the stops on their charge with three wickets in four balls.
"Finals are funny games," Molineux said after winning the player of the match award. "We knew it was going down to the wire."
Little would have pleased the RCB management more than Molineux's returns in the tournament. The punt they took in picking her at the auction paid off as she returned 12 wickets at an economy rate of 7.31, bowling a majority of her overs in the powerplay and at the death. She was RCB'S joint-second highest wicket-taker, that too after coming in on the back of an ACL injury that had kept her out of action for a large part of two years.
"This one's special - to be taken by RCB after not playing any cricket for a while was pretty special," Molineux said. "I felt like I was bowling really slow tonight. I got a bit quick throughout the tournament. I suppose that is tournament play - you have to keep learning from the innings and the mistakes that you make before that and look forward to the next game."
Sobhana Asha (2-14) and Shreyanka Patil (4-12) then chipped in with wickets at regular intervals to clean up the middle order and tail.