Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have started the Women's Premier League (WPL) 2024 with two successive wins. On Tuesday 27 February at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, they defeated the Gujarat Giants (GG) by 8 wickets.
It was RCB's second win of the season and saw them dethrone Mumbai Indians at the top of the points table on net run-rate. MI has also won two matches.
Smriti Mandhana won the toss, opting for the first strike. The home side restricted the Giants to 107/7 in their 20 overs. Gujarat were found wanting in the middle overs as they failed to score runs at a brisk pace.
Renuka Singh, named player of the match, removed Beth Mooney and Phoebe Litchfield. From her 4 overs, she conceded 14 runs.
Wareham picked up the wicket of Ash Gardner while Sophie Molineux took figures of 4-0-25-3.
Dayalan Hemalatha was the top scorer for the Giants with 31 off 25 overs.
RCB's Smriti Mandhana shines
With 45 balls to spare, the Bangalore-based franchise completed the chase. RCB scored 47 runs in the powerplay. Mandhana scored 43 runs off 27 balls, hitting 8 fours and 1 six. She was sent back to the pavilion by Tanuja Kanwar, but by that time it was too late for her.
Sabbhineni Meghana was unbeaten on 36 off 28 balls, scoring a half-century against UP Warriorz. She has scored 2000 runs in T20 cricket.
Ellyse Perry hit 4 fours and finished on 23 not out off 14 balls.
RCB Women are favourites to progress to the knockout stage. They have a net run rate of +1.665 from 2 matches.