Royal Challengers Bengaluru 169 for 2 (Mandhana 96, Voll 54*, Kapp 1-21) beat Delhi Capitals 166 (Shafali 62, Hamilton 36, Bell 3-26, Satghare 3-27) by eight wickets
RCB ended the Navi Mumbai leg of the WPL with an unblemished record in four games while DC were dealt their third defeat in four matches.
Bell, Satghare make the new ball talk
Playing her first WPL season, Bell has been a revelation for RCB with the new ball. She began with a short ball which Lizelle Lee pulled with disdain through backward square leg. But next ball, she speared in a swinging yorker on leg stump. Lee’s weight was on the back foot expecting another short ball and was bowled behind her legs. Two balls later, Bell got through Laura Wolvaardt’s bat-pad gap to castle her for a two-ball duck. Having bowled outswingers till then, Bell got one to nip back in from a length and had Wolvaardt play down the wrong line.
From the other end Satghare, brought in for Arundhati Reddy who was unwell, produced a double-strike of her own. Her Mumbai team-mate Jemimah Rodrigues greeted her by scooping her for four through fine leg first ball. But Satghare shifted the line to outside off and got it to move in a little. Rodrigues went for the dab but chopped it onto the stumps. On the very next ball, Marizanne Kapp could do little about a length ball that held its line and hit top of off. DC were 10 for 4 in the second over.
Shafali lifts DC
While the damage was being done at the other end, Shafali watched helplessly, having faced just the one ball – the first of the game. When her turn to take strike came in the third over, she shimmied down the track and missed a length ball. She looked to pull another but only got an under-edge. She mistimed a double towards midwicket before punching one off the middle of the bat to end the over. That got her going.
Shafali then hit two sixes in the next over from Satghare, followed it with two more fours in the fifth over. She had scored 30 of the 41 DC had after five overs, and was well set by the time Shreyanka Patil came on to bowl. She saw Niki Prasad being dropped on Patil’s first ball, and then got an outside edge for four. When her turn to take strike came, she went dot, six, six to help take 19 from the last over of the powerplay.
DC were 60 for 4 after six overs, but Shafali faced only four balls in the next four overs. She soon got to a 27-ball half-century and fell for a 41-ball 62 when she scythed a Bell slower ball to backward point.
Mandhana, Voll make light work of the chase
Kapp had dismissed Grace Harris five times in 24 innings before Saturday, and that seemed to play on Harris’ mind. She looked tentative against the new ball, a single coming via an inside edge off Kapp. The DC allrounder got the better of Harris when she toe-ended a loft to wide mid-off. That brought Voll, who came in the XI for D Hemalatha, in at No. 3. While she took her time, Mandhana was at her fluent best.
She hit three fours – two pulls and one square drive – in Hamilton’s first over, then a four and a six off Kapp and Nandani Sharma respectively. Despite that RCB could manage only 37 for 1 in six overs. Mandhana then toyed with spinners N Shree Charani and Sneh Rana, getting back-to-back fours against each of them and got to fifty off 31 balls. She relied more on placement than power. Once Mandhana fell, Voll got to her half-century off 41 balls and sealed the win.
S Sudarshanan is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @Sudarshanan7