WPL 2023: Royal Challengers’ losing streak continues in the Women’s Premier League. The team did not fail in all the four matches played.
First Published Mar 10, 2023, 10:22 PM IST
A week has passed since the start of the Women’s Premier League. RCB played four matches in these seven days. Dates are changing on the calendar. Players are coming and going in the team. Opponents are changing. However, RCB’s writing is not changing. This season, the team has suffered its fourth consecutive defeat with a poor performance. In the match against UP Warriors on Friday, the team won against RCB by 10 wickets. In breaking the target of 139 runs set by RCB, UP got the victory with 7 overs remaining without losing a single wicket.
Captain Alyssa Healy (96 not out in 47 balls, 18 fours, 1 six) started the UP innings in a short target. She hit two fours in the second over bowled by Shreyanka. She repeated the same scene in the third over bowled by Komal Janjad. Shreyanka broke the hat trick with fours in the sixth over.
UP’s score crossed half a century (55-0) in the first power play itself. Another opener Devika Vaidya (36 not out in 31 balls, 5 fours) played slowly but Healy played the RCB bowlers. Healy took a single off the first ball in the 9th over bowled by Renuka Singh Thakur. He registered his first half-century this season. After that over, she moved four balls to the boundary. At the end of ten overs, UP scored 103 runs without losing a wicket.
In the 11th over bowled by Barnes, Healy came close to victory with 4 and 6. Elise Perry hit two fours in the 12th over to take UP’s score to 120. In the 13th over bowled by Shreyanka, Vaidya and Healy hit four each to ensure victory for UP.
This is the first time in WPL that a team has reached the target without losing a wicket. It is noteworthy that the target of 139 runs was beaten by the UP openers.
Earlier, the Royal Challengers Bangalore batsmen, who won the toss and chose to bat, once again disappointed. All but Ellie Perry (52) and Sophie Devine (36) were utter fluff. Captain Smriti Mandhana (4), Kanika Ahuja (8), Heather Knight (2), Shreyanka Patil (15), Erin Burns (12), Richa Ghosh (1) have come and gone. Among the UP bowlers, Ecclestone took four wickets and Deepti Sharma got three wickets.
