Royal Challengers Bangalore recorded an eight-wicket win against Delhi Capitals to clinch the Women's Premier League 2024 title at Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday.
Indian youngster Shreyanka Patil and Australian spinner Sophie Molineux took a combined seven wickets to bowl out the Meg Lanning-led Capitals on 113. Then RCB's top order produced crucial knocks to chase down the low target with eight wickets and 3 balls remaining.
A win also ended the franchise's 16-year-long wait for the silverware having lost three times in the Indian Premier League finals (2009, 2011 and 2016). Captain Smriti Madhana finally broke down RCB fans' famous 'Ee Sala Cup Namde' chant to script history.
Shreyanka, 21, took four wickets for 12 to clinch the Purple Cap and Ellyse Perry smashed an unbeaten 35 to claim the Orange Cap.
Meanwhile, Delhi Capitals were off to a cracking start after winning the toss in the final. Meg Lanning and Shafali Verma helped Delhi post 61 runs without losing a wicket in the powerplay overs as RCB bowlers struggled with a new ball.
Molineux gave RCB a breakthrough in the eighth over by taking three big wickets of Shafali Verma, Alice Capsey, Jemimah Rodrigues and then Delhi never found a chance to make a comeback.
Shreyanka took Lanning's big wicket and then took three more to produce the best figures in the WPL final, 4 for 12. Shafali top-scored with 44 off 27 balls but her valiant knock came for the losing side.
Royal Challengers Bangalore also enjoyed an impressive start from Mandhana and Sophie Devine who added 49 runs for the opening wicket. Delhi bowlers produced greedy spells to keep the game alive and eventually dragged it to the wire.
But Richa Ghosh and in-form Ellyse Perry kept their calm to avoid any last-over drama with the former smashing the winning runs off Arundhati Reddy.
Royal Challengers Bangalore Playing XI: Smriti Mandhana (c), Sophie Devine, Sabbhineni Meghana, Ellyse Perry, Richa Ghosh (wk), Sophie Molineux, Georgia Wareham, Disha Kasat, Shreyanka Patil, Asha Sobhana, Renuka Thakur Singh.
Delhi Capitals Playing XI: Meg Lanning (c), Shafali Verma, Alice Capsey, Jemimah Rodrigues, Marizanne Kapp, Jess Jonassen, Radha Yadav, Arundhati Reddy, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Shikha Pandey, Minnu Mani.
