Royal Challengers Bangalore secured their maiden TATA Women's Premier League (WPL) title with a thrilling performance from spinners Sophie Molineux, Shreyanka Patil, and Asha Shobhana at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi. 17 March 2024, this date has been registered in the history of RCB Franchise for both Men's IPL and WPL, this win is the first-ever title they have clinched playing a strong fight against their opponent during the tournament. To be noted, RCB has a Title in this category after a wait of 16 years.
Captain stylish, Smriti Mandhana team has proved themselves by grabbing the title of second season of TATA WPL trophy defeating Runner Ups Delhi Capitals by 8 crucial wickets. Initially, Delhi Capitals captain Meg Lanning won the toss and elected to bat first. The partnership of Shafali Verma and Meg Lanning started well during the first few overs, scoring 61 in the Powerplay without losing a wicket. Shafali scored 42 off 21 balls. However, Smriti's fielding and spinners made a turning point in the game, with Georgia Wareham giving away just three runs in the seventh over. Sophie Molineux reversed the match grabbing wickets of Shafali, Jemimah Rodrigues, and Alice Capsey in the same over.
Shreyanka Patil took a significant 4-wicket haul of Captain Meg Lanning, Minnu Mani, Arundhati Reddy, and Taniya Bhatia. RCB spinners grabbed all the wickets of DC making their team all-out.
During the second innings, RCB secured a win chasing the score of 114 by 8 wickets. Openers Smriti Mandhana and Sophie Devine added 49 for the first wicket. Sikha however caught Sophie's wicket and Arundhati Reddy grabbed Smriti's but the pair of Ellyse Perry and Richa Ghosh gave it all. Their performance was phenomenal with Perry hitting 35 off 37 and Richa smashing 17 off 14 with a last four to finish the game.
Notably, DC scored 113 in 18.3 overs losing all of their wickets whereas RCB scored 115/2 in 19.3 overs winning the match. Ellyse Perry dons the Orange Cap of the season smashing the highest 347 runs whereas the youngest player of the team, Shreyanka Patil takes the Purple Cap grabbing the highest 13 Wickets of the season. Sophie Molineux is the Player of the Match and Georgia Wareham is the Electric Striker of the Season. The Most Valuable Player of the Season is Deepti Sharma of UPW and Shafali Verma smashed the Season's Highest 20 Sixes.
