Perry, spinners steer RCB to maiden title

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.

Sophie Molineux bowled a dream over of three wickets, Shreyanka Patil  continued her stunning streak with a broken hand and Asha Sobhana ripped out two international allrounders in the space of three balls to see the three spinners combine for 9 for 46 in just 10.3 overs to script a Delhi Capitals collapse of 7 for 23 and 10 for 49 to bowl them out for 113. Having finished second from bottom last year, RCB turned their season around for their maiden WPL trophy that made Capitals the runners-up for a second straight year.

The RCB line-up hardly had any nerves in the chase that required them to score at under run a ball. Smriti Mandhana anchored for 15 overs with risk-free batting and No. 3 Ellyse Perry pulled authoritatively for another classy batting show and even though it went down to the last over, Richa Ghosh smashed the third ball of it to long-off and avenge the tears of the one-run loss against Capitals from last Sunday.

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.

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 being 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 Asha’s legspin with a big swing to find long-on, Jonassen miscued completely to be caught not far from the pitch by Mandhana, whom Asha nearly collided into.

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.

Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bangalore115 for 2 in 19.3 over (Smriti Mandhana 31, Ellyse Perry 35*, Sophie Devine 32, Richa Ghosh 17*; Shikha Pandey 1-11, Minnu Mani 1-12) beat Delhi Capitals113 in 18.3 overs  (Meg Lanning 23, Shafali Verma 44, Shreyanka Patil 4-12, Sophie Molineux 3-20, Asha Sobhana 2-14) by eight wickets

(Cricinfo)