Friday, March 10, saw more action in the first Women’s Premier League as Royal Challengers Bangalore faced off against UP Warriorz in the competition’s eighth encounter at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. Smriti Mandhana, the captain of the RCB, won the toss and chose to bat first because her team hadn’t yet experienced their first victory in the competition.
Mandhana was removed cheaply by a spinner for the fourth time in a row in the current tournament, therefore she was unable to defend her choice. She attempted to move her innings forward by trying to slap Gayakwad over long-on with the first ball of the fourth over, but she was only able to get the leading edge, which was securely collected by Anjali Sarvani at covers.
The southpaw left the game after only four runs off of six balls, succumbing once more to careless smashes. In each of the first four games, spinners have removed Mandhana from the game. She was removed in each of the first three matches by right-handed off spinners Alice Capsey, Hayley Matthews, and Ashleigh Gardner, while Rajeshwari Gayakwad, a left-arm orthodox bowler, took her wicket in the fourth match.
The RCB captain only has 80 runs after four innings in WPL 2023, and she has failed terribly to live up to her reputation and price tag. She isn’t the only one having trouble scoring; the entire RCB hitting unit has only amassed two half-centuries in their four games thus far. Returning to the RCB batting, after losing their skipper early, Sophie Devine and Ellyse Perry teamed up for the second wicket and put up a 44-run partnership in 31 balls. Perry left the game after scoring 52 points off 39 balls, while Devine went on to score 36 points off 24.
However, after their partnership ended, no other batter took the onus of taking the innings ahead as RCB once again faced another batting collapse. They were bundled out for just 138 in 19.3 overs as Sophie Ecclestone claimed four wickets for UP while Deepti Sharma scalped three wickets.
