A blistering opening partnership between Grace Harris and Smriti Mandhana made mild work of a modest chase as Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) cruised to an emphatic nine-wicket victory over UP Warriorz (UPW) with 47 balls remaining at Dr. DY Patil Sports activities Academy in Navi Mumbai, establishing RCB’s second consecutive win of their Girls’s Premier League (WPL) 2026 marketing campaign.
Chasing a modest complete of 144, RCB’s opening pair was uncontrolled from the beginning. Grace Harris smashed a rare 85 runs from 40 balls whereas hitting ten boundaries and 5 sixes, forming a 137-run partnership on the prime of the order.
This record-breaking partnership established RCB’s highest opening partnership within the WPL so far. Mandhana completely supported Harris by placing 9 boundaries throughout her 32-ball knock, remaining not out on 47 runs. This match was determined lengthy earlier than it formally concluded, because the partnership was damaged by Shikha Pandey; nonetheless, by that point, RCB had solely wanted to attain seven runs from 74 balls.
As quickly as RCB promoted Richa Ghosh, who batted No.3, to complete the sport, she shortly scored 4 runs from two balls and wrapped up one other dominating win for the Royal Challengers.
Mandhana, after profitable the toss, made the daring determination to bowl first and was backed by a superb efficiency by RCB bowlers, who excelled in executing Mandhana’s recreation plan with nice self-discipline by taking aside UP Warriorz’s prime and center order.
With Harleen Deol (11) promoted to open with Meg Lanning (14), it was evident that the UP Warriorz construction was in disarray as they each struggled to attain runs attributable to RCB’s distinctive line and size. Moreover, Phoebe Litchfield’s promising inning additionally ended abruptly for 20 as she was unable to construct upon her constructive begin.
UPW’s innings utterly fell aside within the center. Kiran Navgire’s (5) and Shweta Sehrawat’s (0) poor shot-making resulted within the Warriors shedding 5 wickets after having a complete of fifty runs.
Luckily, the outgoing captain, Deepti Sharma and Deandra Dottin had been in a position to get better the innings with a mixture of ability and willpower. Deepti and Dottin placed on a outstanding 93-run unbroken partnership for the sixth wicket, serving to the UP Warriorz attain a ultimate complete of 143 runs for 5 wickets after twenty overs. Deepti completed the match with an unbeaten rating of 45, and Dottin with an unbeaten rating of 40, mixing endurance with aggression.
This partnership was the second-highest sixth-wicket stand within the historical past of the WPL, solely behind the unbroken 109-run partnership between Poonam Khemnar and Deepti Sharma in opposition to Gujarat Giants in Delhi in 2024 and simply forward of the 69-run partnership between Grace Harris and Deepti Sharma in opposition to RCB on the similar venue in 2023.
Paradoxically, Dottin’s night time additionally included a forgettable second with the ball. Within the sixth over of the chase, she conceded 32 runs — the one over she bowled — freely giving three fours and three sixes, together with a no-ball, as Harris alone plundered 30 runs off the bat in a decisive burst.
There have been a number of standout performances by RCB all through this match, however Nadine de Klerk was by far the very best bowler of the day, taking 2 wickets for 28 runs. Shreyanka Patil supplied key breakthroughs by dismissing Meg Lanning and Phoebe Litchfield in the identical over, although she proved costly on the loss of life to complete with 2 for 50. Linsey Smith and Arundhati Reddy had been economical of their spells, rounding off an in any other case stable bowling effort.
After profitable each of their matches and incomes two factors for every, RCB strikes to the highest of the league desk with 4 factors. Gujarat Giants even have 4 factors; nonetheless, RCB has a far larger web run charge than the Giants, so they continue to be on the prime of the league desk on Wednesday, earlier than the following match between the Mumbai Indians and the Gujarat Giants, the place the Giants hope so as to add to their factors complete.
RCB’s emphatic win additionally entered the report books. It turned the third-biggest victory in WPL historical past by balls remaining, and the most important for the franchise, with 47 balls left, behind solely Delhi Capitals’ 77-ball win over Gujarat Giants (2023) and 66-ball win over Mumbai Indians (2023).
Transient scores: UP Warriorz Girls 143/5 in 20 overs (Deepti Sharma 45 not out, Deandra Dottin 40 not out; Nadine de Klerk 2-28; Shreyanka Patil 2-50 ) misplaced to Royal Challengers Bengaluru Girls 145/1 in 12.1 overs (Grace Harris 85, Smriti Mandhana 47 not out; Sikha Pandey 1-28) by 9 wickets.