Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) secured their first win of the tournament when they beat the UP Warriorz (UPW) by five wickets at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai on Wednesday, March 15. With a below-par total of 136 runs to chase down, uncapped batter Kanika Ahuja was the star of the show with her 30-ball 46.
It was Ellyse Perry's show with the ball in the first innings, with the Australian all-rounder bagging a three-wicket haul. Perry returned with figures of 3/16 in four overs and was ably supported by the likes of Sophie Devine (2 wickets), Sobhana Asha (1 wicket) and Megan Schutt (1 wicket).
It was an important win for the side after five consecutive defeats.
The Warriorz was struggling at 31/5 before they were given a much-needed boost by Grace Harris and Deepti Sharma (22) with a resolute fight-back. The duo held up a 42-ball 69-run stand for the sixth wicket, which took them past the 100-run mark. In the end, Perry got rid of both the set batters in the 16th over to put RCB in charge again.
After dismissing Deepti and Harris in space of three balls, Perry cleaned up Shweta Sehrawat (6) to dent the Warriorz's hopes of reaching a challenging score.
With the ball, the Warriorz actually started brightly with the wicket of skipper Smriti Mandhana for a duck. She was bowled by Deepti Sharma after Devine gave her team a great start with 14 runs in six balls. Ellyse Perry (10) followed, but Heather Knight tried to help their team claw their way back with a well-played 24 off 21 balls.
She anchored the innings alongside Kanika, whose brilliant innings took RCB to victory. Her innings included 8 fours and 1 six. She was eventually bowled by Sophie Ecclestone but the damage was already done. Richa Ghosh (31* off 32 balls) and Shreyanka Patil (5* off 3 balls) closed out the game for Bangalore with 12 balls to spare.
Meanwhile, Warriorz skipper Alyssa Healy credited RCB's batting and issued a warning for their future games. "look at RCB and they were due. We played hard after putting up an under-par score and weren't good enough. The wicket was tacky early on. Losing three wickets early on wasn't good. It was gripping when the ball was relatively new. Ultimately 130 wasn't good enough. Full credit to RCB, they are a good side. Bit scary for the two sides playing them in the future," the Australian wicketkeeper-batter said.
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