Royal Challengers Bangalore suffered their fifth consecutive defeat in the Women’s Premier League as Delhi Capitals won by six wickets in a hard-fought match here on Monday night. Chasing 151, Delhi Capitals were propelled by the duo of Jess Jonassen (29 not out) and Marizanne Kapp (32 not out), who put up an all-round performance. After a brilliant 4-0-17-0 in the first half, Kapp smashed an unbeaten 32 studded with three fours and a six to take Delhi over the finish line.
Jonassen hit Renuka Singh for a six and a four and ended the game with two balls to spare, scoring an unbeaten 29 off 15 balls, hitting four fours and a six.
Delhi Capitals scored 154/4 in 19.4 overs.
Delhi Capitals finished second on the points table with eight points from four wins, while RCB were pushed closer to elimination as they endured a horrendous campaign in the inaugural WPL, losing all five of their matches.
Delhi Capitals were rocked early by Megan Schutt, who clean-bowled the dangerous Shafali Verma off the second ball of the innings to provide her side with a promising start.
But Ellis Capsy took the lead as he hit a flurry of boundaries to get Delhi back on track. However, their charge was halted by Priti Bose, who dismissed the right-handed batsman for a 24-ball 38, which included eight hits on the fence.
Capsy’s knock was crucial as it gave his side the much-needed momentum on a tough surface where RCB batsmen found life tough for most of their first innings.
The Delhi-led pair of Meg Lanning and Jemimah Rodrigues could only add 25 runs before breaking their stand in the ninth over.
Lanning danced down the track to hit Shobhana Asha over the ropes but could not make the distance and Heather Knight took a neat catch.
Orange Cap holder Lanning, who was dismissed after scoring just 15 runs in 14 balls, registered his lowest score in the league.
A crucial moment in the game came in the first ball of the 12th over, when Priti Bose, batting on 17, dropped a routine catch to relieve Rodrigues.
However, Rodrigues was caught by Richa Ghosh in the 15th over after scoring 32 runs in 28 balls with the help of three fours.
The remaining runs fell to Kapp and Jonassen, who added 45 runs for the fifth wicket.
Earlier in the game, RCB put up a competitive score in their 20 overs with Ellyse Perry (67 not out) and Richa Ghosh (37) giving them a late boost.
RCB had managed 50/2 at the halfway point but their batsmen found the rhythm and did well to add 100 runs to their total in the last 10 overs.
The last six overs saw 82 runs for RCB, with Perry hitting an unbeaten 67 off 52 balls with four fours and five sixes and Ghosh playing his best innings of the tournament so far.
The right-handed India and RCB wicketkeeper-batsman scored 37 runs in 16 balls with three fours and as many sixes before being dismissed by Shikha Pandey.
Pandey was in her element on Monday night, scalping some crucial wickets in the form of Smriti Mandhana (8) and the dangerous Sophie Devine (21).
Pandey also took a quick and athletic catch at short fine leg to dismiss Heather Knight (11) off Tara Norris. However, Pandey dropped Perry on his own delivery for 29, and the RCB batsman made the most of a lifeline.
Kapp, who took an impressive five-wicket haul in Delhi’s last match, went wicketless on Monday but bowled another impressive spell of 4-0-17-0.
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