Smriti Mandhana, Ellyse Perry, and the rest of the team felt really sad after RCB lost a close match against Delhi Capitals in the 17th game of WPL 2024. Despite Richa Ghosh’s amazing century, RCB couldn’t win the important game and lost by just 1 run.
Batting first, Delhi Capitals made 181 runs for 5 wickets in 20 overs. Captain Meg Lanning and Shafali Varma gave their team a good start with 54 runs for the first wicket. But they both got out quickly, leaving their team at 60 runs for 2 wickets.
Even though RCB got these two important wickets, Jemimah Rodrigues and Alice Capsey made a strong partnership, adding 97 runs for the third wicket. Shreyanka Patil finally broke their partnership by getting Rodrigues out for 60, followed by Capsey for 48.
Smriti Mandhana and her teammates are heartbroken:
In the chase for 182 runs, RCB faced an early setback as their captain Smriti Mandhana was dismissed cheaply, scoring only 5 runs before being sent back by Capsey. Despite getting off to promising starts, players like Sophie Molineux (33), Ellyse Perry (49), and Sophie Devine (26) couldn’t stay till the end or convert their starts into big scores.
Both Molineux and Devine were dismissed in quick succession, leaving RCB struggling at 93 for 3, before Richa joined Devine in the middle. The pair stabilized the innings before stepping up the attack when RCB needed 57 runs from the last five overs. Although Devine departed in the 18th over, Richa remained till the end but was unfortunately run out on the final ball with two runs needed.
Richa’s valiant effort, including hitting two sixes in the final over and completing a 28-ball fifty, wasn’t enough to secure victory for RCB. The team was left heartbroken after the defeat, finding it tough to cope with the loss.
On Monday (March 11), RCB shared a video on X (formerly Twitter) where their head coach Luke Williams tried to lift the spirits of the disappointed players.
Currently, with three wins from seven games, RCB holds the third position in the points table. Their final league match is against Mumbai Indians on Tuesday.