What the men haven’t been able to do since the past many years, the women have finally done it on Sunday! Smriti Mandhana led Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated Delhi Capitals by eight wickets in the WPL 2024 Final, clinching their first ever title at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.
Delhi won the toss and decided to bat first followed by DC openers Meg Lanning and Shafali Verma who gave a good start to the team. Though Shafali’s (44) dismissal is the turning point of the match and two more wickets fell in the same over. While chasing the target of 114, RCB achieved it at 115/2 in 19.3 overs with Richa Ghosh hitting the winning shot of four. Ellyse Perry top-scored from Mandhana’s team, with an unbeaten knock of 35 of 37 balls.
Perry was the Orange Cap winner with 347 runs in nine matches and Shreyanka clinched the Purple Cap.
By winning the title, the captain of the franchise Mandhana accomplished what her male counterparts like Anil Kumble (2009 IPL captain), Daniel Vettori (2011 IPL captain) and Virat Kohli (2016 IPL captain) couldn’t do. After the win, Mandhana couldn’t control her emotions.
“Feeling hasn’t still sunk in. Hard for me to come out with expressions. One thing I’ll say is I’m proud of the bunch. Our Bangalore leg was really good. We came to Delhi and had two tough losses. That’s what we spoke about that we need to step up at the right time. These tournaments are about peaking at the right time. Last year taught us a lot of things. What went wrong, what went right,” she said after the match.
“Management just said this is your team, build it (your way). Thumbs up to them. For RCB, it’s a lot more. I’m not the only one who won the trophy, the team has won the trophy. I’m not the person to talk about what I feel. This is in the top five maybe. Obviously a World Cup would top it. Have a message for the fans – the most loyal fanbase. One statement that always comes up is Ee Sala Cup Namde. Now it’s Ee Sala Cup Namdu. Kannada is not my first language but it was important to say it for the fans.” She further added.
It was beautiful to see top athletes supporting and celebrating the win. Even players from RCB men’s team expressed their congratulations and admiration for the winning team.
Virat Kohli, the legendary Indian batsman and former captain of the RCB men’s team congratulated the team through a video call and also shared story on his Instagram.
