Royal Challengers Bangalore 115 for 2 (Perry 35*, Devine 32) beat Delhi Capitals 113 (Shafali 44, Patil 4-12, Molineux 3-20, Sobhana 2-14) by eight wickets
The best team of the league stage. A team full of world-class allrounders. A bowling attack with all bases covered and a batting line-up with envious depth. A captain with more titles than you can count. But it all came down to one over that turned the WPL final on its heel and a team that was nearly knocked out two days ago lifted the trophy in front of a raucous crowd in Delhi.
Shafali starts with a shellacking
Capitals wouldn’t have seen the collapse coming especially after the powerplay they had. Shafali Verma’s swings down the ground powered them to their second-best powerplay score of 61 for 0 and her strokeplay looked ominious. She started by shovelling Molineux over long-on, Renuka Singh straight back and Perry also over long-on. When she deftly steered Perry’s slower one to the deep-third boundary, it was her first four after having smoked three sixes. Meg Lanning, meanwhile, struck consecutive fours to accelerate from 5 off 10 to go past run a ball.
Molineux rips through Capitals
Capitals were ramming their way towards a big total and since pace hadn’t worked early on, Mandhana brought back Molineux’s left-arm spin against the two right-hand batters. She got the big blow when Shafali went for another six but found Georgia Wareham at deep midwicket, the longest boundary on the night. With a lot of batting depth and Shafali’s 44 off 27, one wicket was not going to dent Capitals.
Two balls later, Molineux slowed one down to Jemimah Rodrigues and the shot that fetches her a lot of runs – the sweep – sent her back for a duck when she went too far across and missed. Alice Capsey took a similar approach for her paddle, but she missed as well and bagged a golden duck after hearing the ball rattle the stumps behind her.
Sixty-four for 0 became 64 for 3 in a one-run three-wicket over.
The RCB spinners pounce
With the crowd behind them, Mandhana attacked with spin from both ends. Patil kept it tight on the stumps, Molineux’s drift and accuracy stifled Capitals further and the boundaries dried up. Even though Patil nearly hung on to a rocket-like return catch of Marizanne Kapp just after the halfway mark, she more than made up for it by trapping Lanning two balls later for 23. Lanning reviewed, but having bring struck in front on the back foot was not going to save her or the review.
They still had time to consolidate for a competitive total like RCB did against Mumbai two days ago from 49 for 4. Jess Jonassen and Kapp had scored just five more runs together but both of them gave their wickets away in the space of three balls. After Kapp went against Sobhana’s legspin with a big swing to find long-on, Jonassen miscued completely to be caught not far from the pitch by Mandhana, whom Sobhana nearly collided into.
Eighty-seven for 6 after 14, Capitals would have at least wanted to bat out the innings, but a ruthless RCB attack give them anything to breathe. Minnu Mani missed her sweep to fall lbw after breaking the boundary drought of 46 balls and Radha Yadav’s back-to-back fours against Wareham didn’t count for much eventually because her run-out summed up the Capitals innings. Patil snared the last two wickets in three balls to finish with stunning figures of 4 for 12 from 3.3 overs and the tournament on top of the wicket-taking charts with a tally of 13, followed by Sobhana and Molineux at 12 each.
Mandhana, Perry lead the chase
Mandhana and Sophie Devine were in no hurry to get to 114. They crawled to 25 for 0 in the powerplay with just three boundaries before Devine went after Radha’s first over as soon as the powerplay ended. She smashed three fours on leg with a six in between swung over long-off that reduced the equation to 71 off 78. Devine fell two overs later and Mandhana continued to play along the ground in the company of Perry’s solid strokeplay. As opposed to RCB’s dominance with spin, Capitals chose to bowl pace for 10 of the first 13 overs. Their 30 balls without a boundary were, however, not enough to make dents. Arundhati Reddy’s short length leaked two boundaries in an over and even though Mandhana holed out for 31, Perry and Ghosh wiped out the remaining 32 runs without leaving any room for another thriller.
Vishal Dikshit is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
