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The opener of Royal Challengers Bangalore, Sophie Devine, survived an early scare in the Eliminator of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) against Mumbai Indians. At the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, the New Zealand all-rounder managed to chop the ball from Shabnim Ismail onto her stumps, but the bails didn’t fall after lighting up in a peculiar moment.
On the fourth ball of the first over in the RCB innings, when Sophie Devine was getting herself accustomed to the conditions, she got a brilliant delivery from Shabnim Ismail. The batter managed to have a flat-footed prod at the ball before it hit the base of the leg stump through an inside edge, lighting up the bails, following which it rolled away towards the fine leg boundary for four.
The moment brought a smile on the Mumbai Indians captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, and Sophie Devine, in particular, who was thanking her lucky stars to survive the close call.
But, the luck didn’t last for long as far as Sophie Devine was concerned, getting dismissed in the second over of the RCB innings. It was a peach from Hayley Matthews, which went past the outside edge of her bat before smashing into the off stump.
Sophie Devine was dismissed on 10 off 7 after hitting two fours, the identical score on which her fellow opener and Royal Challengers Bangalore captain, Smriti Mandhana, also lost her wicket. At the end of the first powerplay, the RCB were struggling at 34/3, with a big total far away from their reach.
Watch Sophie Devine survive early scare in WPL 2024 Eliminator:
