It was set up as the battle of two captains, but only one showed up. Ashleigh Gardner ensured Gujarat Giants remained in the hunt for a play–off spot this season. Scoring at a strike rate of 187, the Australian helped her team chase down Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s modest target of 125 with 21 balls to spare.
Even though this was the second-lowest total of the season, GG didn’t come out all guns blazing. Despite yet another shuffle in their batting order, their opening pair —Dayalan Hemalatha and Beth Mooney — continued to struggle. At the end of the powerplay, GG were 30/1 and labouring toward the total.
But Gardner meant it when she said, “Chasing seems to be easier throughout this competition.” She was the one to turn the tide for GG, taking the young and nervy Prema Rawat to the cleaners, scoring 19 off the only over she bowled in the game.
On the flip side, “Hopefully we can put up a good total.” Those were the words of RCB captain Smriti Mandhana after being asked to bat first for the third time in their home leg of the WPL. However, clever bowling changes and astute fielding placements meant RCB succumbed to their lowest powerplay score of the season, managing only 26/3.
This top-order collapse included Ellyse Perry’s first-ever duck in the WPL, while captain Mandhana endured a painful 20-ball 10 — her slowest T20 knock ever. She holed out attempting a slog sweep off Tanuja Kanwar over mid–wicket, but it was the pressure created by GG’s exciting pacer, Kashvee Gautam, that set her up. She consistently got the ball to seam away from the southpaw, restricting Mandhana to a frustrating nine-dot-ball spell.
With disciplined bowling by GG on a dry pitch at a venue typically good for batting, RCB’s solid line–up began to crack. Their middle order was left with too much to do, and despite a brief spark of revival from Kanika Ahuja and Raghvi Bist, RCB slumped from 73/3 in the 12th over to finish at just 125/7 in 20 overs. In the final four overs, RCB batters could only muster 34 runs while losing two wickets.
This collapse was largely due to the immense pressure they put on themselves, managing only 10 boundaries in the entire innings — the fewest by any team facing a full 20-over quota in WPL history.
This loss marks RCB’s third consecutive defeat, while GG are back in contention for the eliminator. The table has been blown wide open, setting the stage for an intense battle between these teams in the matches ahead.
Brief scores: RCB 125/7 in 20 ovs (Kanika Ahuja 33, Raghvi Bist 22; Tanuja Kanwar 2/16, Deandra Dottin 2/34) lost to GG 126/4 in 16.3 ovs (Ashleigh Gardner 58, Phoebe Litchfield 30*; Renuka Singh 2/24, Georgia Wareham 2/26) by 6 wickets.