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That is it from the action tonight in WPL, we will be back tomorrow with another match! You can switch tabs and follow the other matches going on. From here, it is Sourabh and Pradeep wishing you a very good night. Take care!
Beth Mooney (Player of the match and Gujarat Giants' captain) - It was a bit too close in the end for my liking, but really stoked to get on the board. Everyone responded really well. there were few eyebrows raised when we chose to bat, but we had a good discussion before the match and decided to get ahead in the match. Laura was absolutely brilliant, she batted the house down, took a lot of pressure off me with her strokes. I don't know if I was as good as Laura, but my job is to lead from the front, haven't really done that so happy to contribute tonight. Our powerplay (with the ball) was really good to keep them to under 40 was an exceptional effort. Probably a few selection headaches in the next match.
Time for the post-match presentations!
Ashleigh Gardner (Gujarat Giants): Plenty of emotions to be honest, we've waited five games for the moment, lot of excitement, lot of happiness in the change room and you can see that on the face of the girls, sigh of relief indeed. I don't really know, we played like we had nothing to lose, the girls set us up brilliantly in the powerplay, took a lot of confidence out of that and we knew that 200 was something we need to get and we had the bowling to defend that. Most of the credit goes to the two openers on our side. Super exciting for Shakil, she's in the under 19s winning side in South Africa last year, she's willing to learn, she was excited to get out there today and wasn't much pressure on her. First two overs Shakil was brilliant, it's a confidence booster for her, was pleasing to see. Personally would love to see her bowl with the new ball, she hits the hard length, she lands the yorker at the death too, I'm super happy for her. I guess we have to take a lot of confidence from this, we've had a near perfect performance and there's always room for improvement, take this confidence into the next game.
Smriti Mandhana (Royal Challengers Bangalore captain): We definitely had the chat, even though they hadn't got the start this season with world class players. We thought 200 was chaseable, we needed partnerships at the start, nonetheless, they played really well. They started off well, they were going at a good rate, we pulled things back in the end, at one point they looked like getting to 220 plus but we did well to keep them under 200. It's just about playing good cricket, not about batting first or second, having a total of over 190 is good and you need to take wickets, you'll be in the game. We've seen Wareham in international circuit, especially in WBBL, because of her batting, we ensured the margin of defeat was cut down. We need to go back, recognize what went wrong, conditions in Delhi as well and we need to reassess.
Gujarat Giants open their account with a comprehensive win over RCB and begin their Delhi-leg of the tournament with a victory over the team from Bengaluru.
Chasing 200, RCB never really got going. Smriti did play a few shots on her way to 24 but from the moment she got out to Ash Gardner, RCB kept on losing wickets throughout their innings to end up short in the run chase. All the star batters of their side got off to starts but the rate just kept climbing and eventually got the better off them.
Devine and Perry got out into the 20s, Richa Ghosh got a fluent 30 but it was Georgia Wareham's 22-ball 48 that took RCB this close to the target. She smoked the bowlers all around the park but it was way too much for her and the damage had been done earlier in the innings by the Giants' bowlers.
Most of the Giants' bowlers were good with the ball, Ash Gardner being the pick of the bowlers with 2 wickets while Bryce and Kanwar chipped in with a wicket each.
But the match was really set up by Beth Mooney and Laura Wolvaardt in the first innings who combined for a phenomenal opening partnership of 140. The pair took advantage of some sloppy bowling and fielding effort from the RCB bowlers. Mooney carried her bat with 85* and was the star with the bat along with Wolvaardt's 76.
The fielding and the intent from the Gujarat Giants was a key differentiator today and they were very smart and brave as Mooney had asked her team to be at the toss.
20
overs
180/7score
1
1lb
2
6
2
1
runs
Ekta Bisht*
12(5)
Simran Bahadur
1(2)
Ashleigh Gardner
2/23
19.6 Ashleigh Gardner to Ekta Bisht, RUN-OUT! GUJARAT GIANTS FINALLY OFF THE MARK THIS SEASON! Yet another run-out tonight, seventh of the game. Short into the batter, Bisht mistimes the pull to long-on and they come back for a couple but Bisht is no where near in the picture as Gardner flicks the bails off.
19.5 Ashleigh Gardner to Ekta Bisht, short and wide, Bisht pulls that one across to deep square-leg, they decide to come back for the brace. Mooney collects and whips the bails off. Umpire wants to check this upstairs. And, Bisht has made it back just in time!
19.4 Ashleigh Gardner to Ekta Bisht, SIX! BOOM! My word, what a hit from Bisht that. Juicy full toss on the fourth stump, Bisht swings across and clobbers it all the way over deep square-leg for a maximum.