In the 12th match of the Women’s Premier League 2025 played at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, Gujarat Giants Women performed brilliantly and defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore Women by 6 wickets.
The hero of this victory was Ashleigh Gardner, who played a brilliant innings of 58 runs in 31 balls and also took 1 wicket. Batting first, RCB’s team was able to score 125/7, which Gujarat easily achieved in 16.3 overs.
RCB’s faltering batting, no big partnership
RCB Women had a very bad start. The team lost 3 wickets in the first 6 overs. Captain Smriti Mandhana (10) and Elice Perry (0) got out early, which put the team under pressure. Kanika Ahuja (33) and Raghavi Anand (22) tried to handle the innings, but Gujarat bowlers stopped RCB from scoring big.
RCB Women’s top scorers:
- Kanika Ahuja – 33 runs (28 balls, 1 four, 2 sixes)
- Raghavi Anand Singh Bisht – 22 runs (19 balls, 1 four, 1 six)
- Georgia Wareham – 20* runs (21 balls, 1 four)
- Kim Garth – 14 runs (15 balls, 1 four)
- Richa Ghosh – 9 runs (10 balls, 1 six)
Gujarat Giants’ best bowlers:
- Tanuja Kanwar – 4 overs, 16 runs, 2 wickets
- Deandra Dottin – 4 overs, 31 runs, 2 wickets
- Ashley Gardner – 4 overs, 22 runs, 1 wicket
- Kashvi Gautam – 4 overs, 17 runs, 1 wicket
- Meghana Singh – 2 overs, 12 runs, 0 wickets
Gardner wreaks havoc, Gujarat Giants achieved the target in 16.3 overs!
Chasing the target of 126 runs, Gujarat Giants also had a slow start, but Ashley Gardner (58) and Phoebe Litchfield (30*) made a great partnership and led the team to victory.
Top scorers of Gujarat Giants:
- Ashley Gardner – 58 runs (31 balls, 6 fours, 3 sixes)
- Phoebe Litchfield – 30* runs (21 balls, 3 fours, 1 six)
- Beth Mooney – 17 runs (20 balls, 2 fours)
- Dylan Hemalatha – 11 runs (15 balls, 2 fours)
Best bowlers of RCB Women:
- Renuka Thakur – 4 overs, 24 runs, 2 wickets
- Georgia Wareham – 3 overs, 26 runs, 2 wickets
- Sneh Rana – 4 overs, 23 runs, 0 wickets
- Kim Garth – 2.3 overs, 19 runs, 0 wickets
Great win for Gujarat Giants, Gardner becomes ‘Player of the Match’!
Gujarat Giants strengthened their position in the tournament with this win, while RCB Women will need to improve their batting order. Ashley Gardner’s brilliant all-round performance earned her the title of ‘Player of the Match’ and made her team a strong contender in the race for Super 6.
RCB vs GG, After Match Statement
Ashleigh Gardner, skipper of Gujarat Giants has been named as the Player of the Match,
“Over the last couple of games we have not batted as would have liked to but credit goes to the bowlers, particularly TK (Tanuja), Kashwee and it is nice to chase such a low score, you can get into your innings and play your shots. We should have won the firs game but that is cricket, people can outplay you. We quietened the crowd, that’s what people want to do when they get here. It is the trend of WPL at the moment (chasing). It is nice to not have a lot of dew. The wickets has shown it has had quite a lot in it. In the game against Delhi Capitals, it was a green wicket and it moved around a lot.
Today was really flat, it has been different every time and now we are off to Lucknow. I have never played in Lucknow, don’t know what to expect there. We spoke about getting better with the bat, we just lost one in the powerplay even though we were not going at tens. We lost four in the powerplay earlier, hard to come back from that. Pleased to see the batters go about their job. Bowlers are doing a fantastic job, we want to keep putting points on the board.”
Phoebe Litchfield (Gujarat Giants):We came here with an air of positive vibes. We were pretty average in our last two games and so, needed to turn it around. Our opening bowlers bowled really well and we caught well too to apply the initial pressure.
Ashleigh Gardner stepped out and put the pressure right back on them with that big over and then, we had to just knock it around and build partnerships. Ashleigh dropped that catch because it was right in the lights, but then came that throw to the stumps which worked beautifully! In the first game against RCB we needed to get hold of a couple of catches to get the win, but if we keep up like this, we should win more.
Smriti Mandhana (Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain):
I don’t think we batted well in the power play. We tried a bit too hard up front and messed it up. It was a different kind of a wicket. From the time we’ve come here, we played some really good cricket but ended up losing.
Today though, we were outplayed in all three departments. But we have to lift ourselves up now. We all have to step up and come back stronger. Kanika Ahuga and Raghvi have been pretty impressive! They got us to where we ended up being. But we all will need to start contributing.
