In the first match of the Women’s Premier League 2025 played at Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) defeated Gujarat Giants by 6 wickets in a thrilling match.
Batting first, Gujarat captain Ashley Gardner’s explosive batting (79 runs, 37 balls) helped the team score a strong score of 201 runs, but RCB batsmen Richa Ghosh (64 runs, 27 balls) and Ellyse Perry (57 runs, 34 balls) batted brilliantly and led the team to victory.
WPL 2025, First innings: Gujarat’s excellent score
At the beginning of the match, Gujarat team came out with the opening pair of Beth Mooney and Laura Wolvaardt. However, Wolvaardt was soon dismissed by Renuka Thakur. After this, captain Ashley Gardner took charge and she put the team in a strong position by hitting 3 fours and 8 sixes in her innings.
Beth Mooney also batted well and scored 56 runs, which included 8 fours. Deandra Dottin played a quick innings of 25 runs, which included 3 fours and 1 six. The team scored 201 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in 20 overs.
Renuka Thakur bowled the best in RCB’s bowling and gave 25 runs by taking 2 wickets. Kanika Ahuja, Georgia Wareham and Prema Rawat took one wicket each.
WPL 2025, Second innings: RCB’s explosive reply
RCB did not have a good start while chasing 202 runs. Captain Smriti Mandhana (9 runs) and Daniel Wyatt (4 runs) returned to the pavilion soon. But after this Alice Perry and Raghavi Anand Singh Bisht took over the innings.
The course of the match changed when Richa Ghosh came to the crease. She hit 7 fours and 4 sixes in her 27-ball innings. Alice Perry also batted brilliantly and scored 57 runs which included 6 fours and 2 sixes. Kanika Ahuja also played an unbeaten innings of 30 runs in the end, due to which the team achieved the target in just 18.3 overs.
After Match Players’ reactions
After the match, Player of the Match Richa Ghosh said,
My plan was to take time and take the game deep, see how the pitch plays out and play my natural game. (Batting with Kanika) We thought we could chase this down and we will play a positive game. Our preparations helped and the match simulations with various situations also helped us. One side was shorter but I didn’t think about it and played the ball on its merit.
RCB captain Smriti Mandhana praised the team and said,
I am really happy we are on the winning side. The way Richa and Pez (Perry) batted was great to watch. They have been brilliant to watch, have been doing this to our bowlers in the nets for the last couple of days. We knew dew would settle in and we were always in the game. We lost the top three wicket-takers of the season, but the replacements did a fine job.
Gujarat captain Ashleigh Gardner said after the defeat,
Yeah it’s pretty flattering to be honest. We knew 200 was just a par score. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be and the dropped chances hurt us in the end. There will always be positives from this game. Beth Mooney set the tone and then Deandra Dottin did what she does best. Richa capitalised on the chances, rode her luck and batted beautifully. It was very difficult to be honest. We know it gets dewey playing at night in India. Certainly not gonna use that as an excuse. Yeah it’s okay to take the emotions out of this game. We were in a really good position but some real positives to take from this game. Keep attacking with both bat and ball in the coming games and hopefully the result will take care of itself.
Further schedule
With this win, RCB has opened its account in the tournament. The next match will be played between Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Capitals on Tommorow, February 15. Gujarat’s team will play its next match against UP Warriors on February 16.
