Richa Ghosh hit two monstrous sixes but paid the price for her poor form as Delhi Capitals fell short of her and took a cliffhanger win against Royal Challengers in a solitary run in the Women's Premier League on Sunday. Richa last needed 17 off to reach a target of 182. Richa, who shot 51 off 29 balls, hit left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen for a straight six from 78 yards and another maximum off the penultimate delivery to reduce the equation to two runs from the final delivery.
However, Richa, who despite the raw power in her strokes is not exactly known as the strongest among Indian cricketers, was not quick enough to beat Jonassen, who took no time to knock off the bails to restrict RCB to 180 for 7 .
DC, with their fifth win, are now on 10 points and top the rankings thanks to a superior net run-rate (+0.918) compared to Mumbai Indians (+0.343).
Shikha Pandey needed 28 off the last two overs and conceded a number of boundaries but removed Georgia Wareham, leaving left-arm spinner Jonassen to defend 17 in the final over.
Earlier, Jemimah Rodrigues showed her complete mastery of slow bowlers with a 26-ball half-century that took Delhi Capitals to a competitive 181 for 5 in 20 overs. However, young off-spinner Shreyanka Patil took four for 26 in her four overs and was brilliant at the business end of the DC innings to curb the home side's scoring.
In front of a raucous holiday crowd, Rodrigues produced sweeps, cuts, pulls and the superb inside-out lofted drive to score 58 off 34 balls, making 97 runs in just 10.1 overs for the third wicket with Alice Capsey (48 off 32 balls), who used the long handle to good effect during the slog-overs.
This was after Shafali Verma (23 off 18 balls) and Meg Lanning (29 off 26 balls) added 54 for the opening stand but were then dismissed in quick succession.
Rodrigues, not exactly known for her power-hitting, depended on her solid touch play, impeccable timing and deft placements to hit eight fours and a six.
Maximum off-leg-break bowler Georgia Wareham, who was hit compellingly over extra cover, brought up her fifty.
Her best shot, however, was the inside-out box that was sent just wide from long-range to the boundary. She found an able ally in Capsey, who initially let the Indian do more of the attacking before upping the ante during the death overs.
Spinner Asha Shobhana, seeing her coming down the track, tried to bowl one wide and out of her reach but the Southern Stars batsman used her long reach to hit her over extra cover.
Rodrigues, who should have scored more, was beaten around the legs as she tried to convert off-spinner Shreyanka's full toss into an over-throw in her attempt to play a paddle sweep.
Capsey, who also hit eight boundaries, continued to find the gaps before Shreyanka, the opposition's best bowler, bowled a superb last few overs to keep DC in check, conceding just nine runs.
(This story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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