“I am not actually sure,” said Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Georgia Wareham when asked at the end of the Women’s Premier League Eliminator how her side had pulled off a win. Wareham had hit the last ball of the 20th over of RCB’s innings for a six. Mumbai Indians needed that exact same outcome off the last ball they faced to at least force a Super Over. Amelia Kerr, however, couldn’t connect.
Cue: RCB chants and a famous win for the popular franchise that took them into their first WPL final.
Asha Sobhana might have had a hundred butterflies in her stomach running around, she didn’t show it though. It was a tournament where she didn’t exactly have much to celebrate after that sensational five-for in Match 2. She was there and thereabouts, picking a few wickets along the way. But with one over left in the effective semifinal at the Arun Jaitley Stadium against MI, Smriti Mandhana turned to the legspinner.
MI needed 12 from 6 balls, with five wickets in hand. Mandhana, with her main bowlers done with their quota, had to choose between Renuka Singh Thakur or Sophie Devine or Asha. And she picked the uncapped domestic player to do the job over two international stars. Given the conditions on offer, it was the logical thing to do. But experience plays a huge part in such moments. RCB, however, decided to trust their domestic talent.
And Asha delivered. She didn’t concede a single boundary, and picked up the wicket of Pooja Vastrakar to complete the last over that read: 1-1-2-W-1-1. RCB, out of nowhere, stole a march on the defending champions, winning by 5 runs. In a match that was tense throughout the second half, with neither side seemingly grabbing the advantage, RCB held their nerve in the last few overs.
“Any batter in the last over, I knew that they would try to hit me over the fielders on the shorter side. So I wanted to pull it shorter and make it slow,” Asha told the broadcasters after the match. “Smriti spoke to me about the field every ball, she was amazing. We were confident to defend the target because it wasn’t easy for any batter to score on the wicket against slow spinners.”
As Kerr managed just a thick outside edge with her attempted big shot, Asha did the ‘calma’ celebration popular in football. “Yes, I am a football fan, I just wanted to say that captain Smriti trusted me so much and gave me the last over, so don’t worry,” she said about her gesture.
With 20 runs needed off 18 balls and Harmanpreet Kaur in the middle, MI appeared favourites. But what followed was three top overs from three RCB spinners.
First up, Shreyanka Patil. A few nights back, the spinner was in tears after she and Richa Ghosh couldn’t manage to complete a last-ball win against Delhi Capitals. But before that, with the ball, she had delivered two impeccable overs in the death to restrict a strong DC lineup from finishing well. It was an effort widely appreciated by the RCB think-tank. In the Eliminator, with just 136 to defend, RCB turned to Shreyanka early in the innings. She bowled two tight overs in the powerplay, including the wicket of Hayley Matthews.
And in the 18th over, she kept Kerr and Kaur quiet, should have had the Indian captain out the first ball but picked up the massive wicket off the last ball. It was the most decisive moment in the match. She finished with figures of 2/16.
Then in the 19th over, Sophie Molineux stepped up. She didn’t have the best of outing with the bat, but bowled a near-perfect death over, picking up the wicket of Sajana Sajeevan with one that was tossed up.
After that, Asha did the rest.
“Still the feeling hasn’t sunk in. But the way everyone bowled and fielded, was just amazing. It was the kind of total where you don’t know if you want to go for it or be defensive, and that is why you always have a chance. Last over by Asha was amazing. Harmanpreet’s wicket I think was the turning point, we have seen her finish games. The 19th over from Sophie, that really made a lot of difference,” Smriti Mandhana – who could barely believe how her side pulled it off in the end – said after the match according to the reports published in indianexpress.com .
That RCB got to even a decent total was thanks once again to Ellyse Perry. The superstar allrounder haunted Mumbai once again as she scored 66 runs off 50 balls, in a knock where she timed the ball better than any other batter on the night. While everyone struggled to find a good rhythm, she peppered the boundaries frequently enough to take her side to what eventually proved to be the winning total.
