WPL 2024: Delhi Capitals’ Triumph Over RCB as Kapp, Jonassen, and Shafali Shine Bright
WPL 2024: Delhi Capitals soared to the top of the points table after the victory, while RCB dropped to second.
In 2024, Delhi Capitals ended Royal Challengers Bangalore’s winning streak with a victory because to the bats of Shafali Verma and Alice Capsey.
Royal Challengers Bangalore 169 for 9 (Mandhana 74, Meghana 36, Jonassen 3-21, Kapp 2-35) were defeated by Delhi Capitals 194 for 5 (Shafali 50, Capsey 46, Devine 2-23, de Klerk 2-35) by a margin of 25 runs.
Sixes flew at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium as Shafali hit her second half-century in as many games and shared an 82-run partnership for the second wicket with Capsey to lead the Capitals to 194 for 5. Nineteen sixes were scored in the match, matching the women’s T20 record. Four of them came from Shafali, and three were supplied by Smriti Mandhana, who scored an extremely exciting 74 off 43 balls, giving her team a chance to stage the competition’s most successful run chase.
However, the Capitals had scored 70 runs in their last five overs, mostly because to a crucial 22-ball 48-run partnership between Jess Jonassen and Marizanne Kapp. The pair also shared five wickets between them, but ultimately RCB’s assignment proved too formidable as they continue to look for victory over Capitals in this tournament.
Capsey and Shafali take the spotlight
In the first over of the game, Shafali lofted Renuka Singh back over the bowler’s head for a beautiful four. A few moments later, Shreyanka Patil put Shafali down at cover. The next over saw Sophie Devine hit a six over deep midwicket, but it was Devine who struck first when Meg Lanning trapped Georgia Wareham at deep backward point with a short, wide ball.
Ideally, she ought to have stored that away, so Devine wouldn’t even be able to rejoice when Lanning lumbered back to the dugout for eleven. At the end of the powerplay, Shafali hit a 78-meter six over long-on to put the Capitals up to 45 for 1.
Capsey, who had hit two fours in three deliveries off legspinner Asha Sobhana, hammered over mid-on and reverse-swept with force after scoring 75 in a losing cause against the Mumbai Indians in the first game. In the tenth over, Wareham came on the attack and was quickly removed from the game by Capsey, who then went on to take her partnership with Verma past fifty two balls with a reverse for four.
To trim Shafali’s sure six to two, Wareham made an amazing fielding display. She leaped high into the air, just inside the rope, plucked the ball from the sky, and threw it back into the outfield as she careened over the boundary. After hitting two consecutive sixes off Shreyanka, Shafali reached her fifty, but she fell on the following ball and attempted a third, only to find Wareham waiting beneath it at deep midwicket.
De Clark Capitalizes on Given Opportunity
Nadine de Klerk made the most of her WPL debut as she was called into the RCB squad to replace an injured Ellyse Perry. She removed Jemimah Rodrigues before she could pose a threat and took Capsey for 46. However, things weren’t always easy for the South African all-round player. She witnessed Capsey smash her opening delivery, a slower ball outside off-stump, over deep midwicket for six. Devine dropped an easy chance at long-on, which would have put Capsey out for 41.
As the batter attempted to clear mid-off, she extracted an extra bounce and had Rodrigues out for a four-ball duck. Simran Bahadur was waiting there. However, de Klerk’s highlight came with a pin-point yorker that clattered into Capsey’s stumps. In the penultimate over, Devine broke the partnership between Kapp and Jonassen when Kapp misplayed a long-off ball to Bahadur, costing her the over as Kapp hammered home two sixes and a four.
Replaced by fellow Australian Annabel Sutherland in the Capitals lineup, Jonassen hit four fours and two sixes on her way to an undefeated thirty-six off sixteen balls. Her final-ball six from Patil sent her team over the difficult 190-mark.
After four overs, Mandhana took the RCB by storm, reaching 36 off 21 balls and dominating her partnership with Devine, who had faced just three balls up till that point. She hit seven fours and two sixes for her 45 not out by the end of the powerplay, helping RCB reach 52 without losing any wickets. Mandhana broke the shackles that had kept her limited to nine off twelve balls when she cut Minnu Mani behind backward point and sprinted two to clinch her maiden WPL fifty.
Devine came thundering down the pitch to smash consecutive sixes over deep midwicket and long-on, both of which measured an incredible 87 metres. But she perished in the next over, top-edging Jonassen at midwicket after a full toss from Arundhati Reddy.
It was always going to be a tall order, even though Smriti used every inch of the field for her runs, as RCB was still scoring less than the necessary run rate. They briefly got back on track when she skillfully placed Radha Yadav over cover to the boundary. Her six off Kapp over deep midwicket to reach 74 was outstanding. However, after facing 43 balls, Mandhana swung early and missed, and Kapp snatched the pace off a length ball to put her out on the very next delivery.
After getting Richa Ghosh caught by Jonassen, Kapp claimed another crucial wicket, finishing with 2 for 35 in her four overs. S With RCB requiring 31 off eight deliveries after Meghana was run out for 36, Reddy had de Klerk caught cheaply on the next ball. Australia’s death bowling extraordinaire, Jonassen, took three wickets in the last over, ensuring an obvious outcome.
