Sophie Devine. (Photo Source: Twitter/WPL)
Royal Challengers Bangalore registered their second consecutive win in the Women’s Premier League on Saturday, March 18 as they beat Gujarat Giants by eight wickets in match 16.
They chased down the massive target of 189 in just 15.3 overs courtesy of a breathtaking innings by Sophie Devine who unfortunately fell one run short of becoming the first player to score a hundred in WPL.
Devine broke several records during her innings of 99 off 36 balls smacking nine fours and eight sixes in her innings. She scored the third fasted fifty of the tournament reaching the landmark off just 20 balls. She further left behind Alyssa Healy’s unbeaten 96-run knock to register the highest individual score in WPL. Her eight sixes are also the most number of sixes hit in an individual innings in the ongoing WPL.
She amassed 84 runs through fours and sixes and became the batter with most runs scored through boundaries in an individual knock going past Healy’s tally of 78 that the latter had aggregated against RCB itself.
Her whirlwind knock helped her surpass Delhi Capitals’ skipper Meg Lanning’s tally of most runs (239 runs in six matches) in the ongoing season as she now is leading the ladder with 266 runs in seven matches and is currently donning the orange cap.
She also has the second-best strike rate (175.00) for a batter with minimum of 100 runs scored in the tournament so far. Her blistering knock also helped her notch up the best strike rate in an individual innings in the WPL as she struck at a strike rate of 275 against Gujarat.
The New Zealand star was caught at mid-off while trying to reach her hundred with a boundary and left her team in a commanding position at 157/2 at 11.5 overs.
Following her dismissal, Ellyse Perry and Heather Knight took their team home adding 32 runs in 22 balls.
Earlier in the first innings, Gujarat posted 188/4 in their allotted 20 overs on the back of a half-century from Laura Wolvaardt. The opener scored 68 off 42 balls with the help of nine fours and two sixes. She got good support from Ashleigh Gardner who scored 41 off 26 balls.
By virtue of their win, RCB are ranked on the second last position (4th) on the points table with two wins out of seven games. They desperately need a win by another big margin in their last fixture against Mumbai Indians.
Apart from that, they also have to hope that UP Warriorz lose both of their last fixtures against Gujarat Giants and Delhi Capitals respectively. In such a scenario, all three of UP, RCB and Gujarat will end up with six points each and the one having the best net run rate will qualify for the knockout stage.
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