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On Tuesday, February 27, Royal Challengers Bangalore Women registered a comfortable eight-wicket win against Gujarat Giants in the WPL 2024. In front of their adoring home fans at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, the RCB-W put on a splendid display of cricket with their captain Smriti Mandhana, and Sophie Molineux leading the charge with bat and ball respectively.
After winning the toss, Smriti Mandhana, the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore Women, decided to field first against Gujarat Giants. Her bowling lineup was exceptional right through the innings, keeping the scoring rate of the opposition in check while chipping away at the wickets at the same time.
Renuka Singh removed the Australian duo of Beth Mooney, the captain of Gujarat Giants, and Phoebe Litchfield in quick succession, to put them firmly on the backfoot at the beginning of the innings. Following that, Sophie Molineux picked up three wickets in the later half of the Giants' innings to reduce them to 107/7 in their allotted overs.
In pursuit of a low target of 108 runs, the RCB-W captain, Smriti Mandhana, didn’t give the Giants bowlers any sniff in the first powerplay, scoring consistent boundaries to put them firmly on the backfoot despite Sophie Devine losing her wicket early at the other end. Smriti Mandhana scored 43 off 27 with eight fours and one maximum before the highly impressive Tanuja Kanwar sent her back to the pavilion.
Sabbhineni Meghana and Ellyse Perry shared an unbeaten stand of 38 runs for the third wicket to ensure that Royal Challengers Women get over the line with 45 balls remaining in their innings.
