Navi Mumbai, Jan 16 (PTI) Radha Yadav and Richa Ghosh shared a century stand after a wobbly start to take Royal Challengers Bengaluru to a competitive 182 for 7 against Gujarat Giants in a Women’s Premier League match here on Friday.
Yadav (66 off 47) and Ghosh (44 off 28) together scored 105 runs in 11 overs to set the platform for the fighting total.
Sent in to bat, RCB made an aggressive start with Grace Harris clobbering four boundaries off pacer Renuka Singh to pick 23 runs in the first over.
But Harris’s innings was cut short by right-arm pacer Kashvee Gautam, who trapped the batter plumb in front of the wicket with a perfect inswinger.
Gautam struck again in her next over removing D Hemalatha, caught by debutant Shivani Singh.
Clobbered in the opening over, Renuka came back strongly and picked up the vital wicket of RCB skipper Smriti Mandanha, brilliantly caught by a diving forward attempt from Rajeshwary Gayakwad in the fifth over.
RCB continued to lose wickets as Gautami Naik was the next to depart, LBW to Sophie Devine (3/31) as the Bengaluru outfit slumped to 43 for 4 in the sixth overs.
Australian leg-spinner Georgia Wareham was then taken to the task by Radha Yadav, first hitting a much-needed boundary through point and then dispatching the ball over long-on for a maximum.
Richa Ghosh and Radha Yadav then came together at the crease. The duo played cautiously for an over before Yadav hammered Wareham for a boundary and a maximum off consecutive deliveries.
While Yadav was more aggressive of the two, Ghosh too picked up pace with a few boundaries to keep RCB’s scoreboard ticking.
Ghosh, dropped at deep mid-off by Gautam in the 13th over, utilised the ‘life’ by clobbering Wareham over deep mid-wicket.
Ghosh sent a Sophie Devine delivery flying over the long-off boundary while Yadav too hit a maximum off the final ball of the same over to bring up her fifty off 36 balls.
The duo scored boundaries at will to bring up the 100-run stand for the fifth wicket in the 16th over.
Towards the end, Nadine de Klerk made a handy 12-ball 26. PTI SSC AM SSC AM AM
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