Bengaluru, March 1 Crucial wickets by Delhi Capitals' debutant Nallapureddy Shree Charani in the death overs knocked the breath out of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the Women's Premier League (WPL) 2025 here on Saturday. Ellyse Perry’s lone show on the night helped the home side reach 147/5 at the end of the first innings at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here.
With her crucial 60-run unbeaten innings, Ellyse Perry passed Delhi Capitals captain Meg Lanning to become the highest scorer in WPL Season 3 history, with 895 runs to her name in 22 matches. The Delhi Capitals, who have been a force to be reckoned with the ball in the power-play, struck early as skipper Smriti Mandhana was dismissed by Shikha Pandey in the second over. A fullish delivery, moving away from Smriti, prompted the left-handed batter to drive at it, but she ended up edging it to slips.
Ellyse, alongside Danni Wyatt-Hodge, took the early setback in stride and took the fight to the bowling attack. Meg Lanning’s decision to bring on a spinner in the power-play did not work as the batters targeted Jess Jonassen in the fifth over.
Wyatt-Hodge danced down the pitch to hit a massive six over long-on. On the very next delivery, the English batter attempted to clear the fielder at mid-off but was not able to hit it cleanly.
However, a mistimed jump from Meg saw her get a lifeline. Elysse joined the party on the very next delivery by walking down the pitch and dispatching Jess straight down the ground for six. Just when it seemed as though the home side had found their groove, Marizanne Kapp, on the first ball after the drinks break, found the edge to dismiss Danni.
Raghvi Bisht and Perry went on to stitch a 66-run partnership for the third wicket. However, the former never really got going and failed to accelerate the run rate in the middle overs whilst adding more pressure on her partner. The debutant changed the game on its head in the 17th over and rocked the game back in Delhi’s favour. She first invited Raghvi to come down the pitch, but the ball turned enough to catch her for a stumping. Charani struck again by dismissing Richa Ghosh later in the over.
From there, RCB’s batting went downhill as they only managed to conjure 41 runs, while three wickets fell, in the final five overs of the game. The batters certainly would have hoped that they could have rotated the strike more and supported their star Australian batter in a better manner.
Brief scores:
RCB 147/5 in 20 overs (Ellyse Perry 60, Raghvi Bist 33; Nallapureddy Charani 2-28, Shikha Pandey 2-24) vs Delhi Capitals
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