WPL 2023 GG vs RCB: Dunkley, Harleen Deol Fire Gujarat Giants To Their First Win In The Tournament. Women’s Premier League 2023 (WPL) is getting engrossing day by day for fans. Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) took on Gujarat Giants (GG) on March 8 at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai. Both sides are aiming for their first win in the IPL 2023 after losing their first two games each.
Smriti Mandhana-led RCB suffered defeats at the hands of Delhi Capitals (DC) and Mumbai Indians (MI); whereas Gujarat Giants suffered defeats from Mumbai Indians and UP Warriorz (UPW) in the first week of the WPL 2023.
Sophia Dunkley smashed the fastest fifty in WPL 2023
Gujarat Giants won the toss and opted to bat first. Their openers Sophia Dunkley and Sabbhineni Meghana started well in the first few overs. However, Meghana was caught behind the wicket by Richa Ghosh on 8. Megan Schutt dismissed her to give the first blow to Gujarat Giants.
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However, Dunkley continued her assault on opposition bowlers and completed her fifty in just 18 balls. This is the fastest fifty in WPL 2023. She dealt in boundaries in a major part of his innings. At last, she was dismissed by Shreyanka Patil by making 65 runs off just 28 balls. Her phenomenal knocks were studded with 11 fours and three towering sixes.
Harleen Deol’s first WPL fifty helped Giants to reach 200
After the wicket of Dunkley, Harleen Deol added 53 runs with Ashleigh Gardner. Harleen brought up her first fifty in the WPL 2023 in 35 balls. She continues to milk runs in the death overs for the Giants, She made 67 runs off 45 balls with the help of nine fours and one six. The giants put up a huge total of 201 on board in 20 overs after losing seven wickets.
Sophie Devine played a valiant knock
While chasing a huge total of 202 runs, RCB openers Smriti Mandhana and Sophie Devine gave a quickfire start to their side. However, Mandhana holed out at mid-on and was caught by Mansi Joshi. RCB skipper made 18 runs off 14 deliveries. Devine added 43 runs with one down batter Ellyse Perry and brought up her own first WPL half-century in 36 balls.
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Devine tried to take RCB closer to the target, however, pacer Annabel Sutherland got better off the batter. Devine made 66 runs off 45 balls with the help of eight fours and two sixes. The next batter Heather Knight played a whirlwind knock, however, RCB couldn’t get over the line as Giants won by 11 runs in the final over. Knight remained unbeaten on 30 off 11 balls. Gardner was the peak of the bowlers for Giants today by taking three wickets for 31 runs.
Brief Scorecard: Gujarat Giants 201/7 (20 overs) (Deol 67, Dunkley 65, Knight 2/17) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 190/6 (20 overs) (Devine 66, Perry 32, Gardner 3/31) by 11 runs.
Playing XIs of Royal Challengers Bangalore and Gujarat Giants
Royal Challengers Bangalore Women Playing XI: Smriti Mandhana (c), Richa Ghosh (wk), Sophie Devine, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Renuka Thakur Singh, Preeti Bose, Heather Knight, Kanika Ahuja, Shreyanka Patil, Poonam Khemnar
Gujarat Giants Playing XI: Sneh Rana (c), Sushma Verma (wk) Sabbhineni Meghana, Sophia Dunkley, Kim Garth, Mansi Joshi, Tanuja Kanwar, Harleen Deol, Annabel Sutherland, Ashleigh Gardner, Dayalan Hemalatha
