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Navi Mumbai: One of Smriti Mandhana’s self-highlighted KRAs from this Women’s Premier League (WPL) season was to get better at the lap shot. Her innings on Saturday featured that cheeky shot, and one little stroke of luck.
In the second over of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) 167-run chase against Delhi Capitals (DC), Mandhana missed an on-side heave from left-arm pacer Lucy Hamilton. The ball hit her back thigh but no one in the DC jersey, including the bowler and wicketkeeper, really appealed, perhaps assuming it was sliding down. Replays on the big screen showed the three reds.
Instead, Mandhana marched on to make it four Ws for her team in this WPL, as RCB cruised to an eight-wicket victory.
The India vice-captain’s 61-ball 96 eclipsed her fellow national T20 team opener Shafali Verma’s 62 (41b) in a match where two RCB pacers, Lauren Bell and Sayali Satghare, took three-wicket hauls with quality new-ball bowling.
Mandhana was her usual silken smooth on anything wide, yet what stood out was the left-hander’s leg-side play. She pulled with crisp timing. She slog-swept to the midwicket region with great intent, even while picking up the slower ball from Nandani Sharma. And, of course, she brought out the lap shot off N Shree Charani for a boundary.
The innings looked set to end WPL’s first century wait, only for Mandhana’s cut to be grabbed by a diving Hamilton at point. Georgia Voll, playing her first match this season, remained unbeaten on 54 (42b).
WPL’s final match of the Navi Mumbai leg began much the same way as the first – Bell (3/26) making the new ball move to her tune.
The tall English pacer cleaned up in-form Lizelle Lee around the legs with a full swinging delivery, and Laura Wolvaardt with one that nipped back off a good length in the first over. Satghare (3/27) joined the chorus as captain Jemimah Rodrigues played on and Marizanne Kapp lost her off-stump.
In nine balls, DC were 10/4 and all at sea. Shafali weathered the storm, forging two mini-partnerships with Niki Prasad (12) and Sneh Rana (22). The attacking opener didn’t fully go into her shell, and found boundaries with fluent frequency to keep the run-rate healthy and take DC past the 100-mark.
Once she was dismissed at the start of the 16th over at 130/8, Hamilton took over for a breezy cameo (36-19b) that swelled DC’s total from near implosion.
Brief scores: DC 166 in 20 ovs (Shafali Verma 62, Lauren Bell 3/26, Sayali Satghare 3/27, Prema Rawat 2/16); RCB 169/2 in 18.2 ovs (Smriti Mandhana 96, Georgia Voll 54). RCB won by 8 wkts.
