WPL 2023: Gujarat Giants’ Sophia Dunkley smashes fastest 50 of tournament

Sophie Dunkley. (Photo Source: Twitter/WPL)

Records are incoming in the inaugural WPL as players have been setting the stage on fire in every game so far. In today’s match between Gujarat Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore as well, Gujarat’s Sophia Dunkley notched the fastest 50 in the 4-day history of WPL, reaching the milestone in just 18 deliveries. Although it’s certainly too early to call it a record, it’s no ordinary feat either and may thus remain untouched for some time to come.

Earlier, the coin fell in Gujarat’s skipper Sneh Rana’s favour who, after coming close to stealing a win while defending against UP, chose to bat first. Raring to find their maiden win, Sophia Dunkley went all guns blazing right from the word go and indiscriminately hit boundaries to start-off with an accelerated run-rate. Her partner on the other end, Sabbhineni Meghana mostly remained a dormant witness to the destruction and soon got out herself to Meghan Schutt.

But this hardly seemed to have any effect on Dunkley as the England-batter kept going after RCB bowlers to clear the fence, time and again. With Harleen Deol, she scripted a 60-run partnership in just 30 deliveries to which, Dunkley had the major part of the contribution. In the process, she scored the fastest fifty of the WPL in 18 deliveries. Her innings was studded with 11 boundaries and 3 maximums.

Patil extinguishes the fire for RCB

Dunkley was looking ferocious with the bat and definitely didn’t look in a mood to settle down. As she was looking to break it all for RCB, a young Shreyanka Patil managed to bring the juggernaut to a halt, getting Dunkley caught by Heather Knight. She got out for 65, which came off just 28 deliveries.

This reduced Gujarat Giants to 82/2 after the completion of 8 overs. With Harleen Deol in form, Gujarat looks solid enough to hunt Bangalore down for their much-awaited win of the tournament.

On the bowling front, Meghan Schutt and Ellysse Perry opened the innings for RCB with the new ball and have been able to limit the flow of runs despite Dunkley’s devastating innings. Preeti Bose and Renuka Singh have had to bear much of the brunt as the two bowlers went for piles of runs.