The Royal Challengers Bangalore won the WPL 2024 trophy with an eight-wicket win over the Delhi Capitals, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Sunday. However, RCB bowlers restricted Delhi to 113 runs and chased the target down with three balls in hand. For Bangalore, Shreyanka Patil claimed four wickets while Player of the Match Sophie Molineux grabbed three wickets. Richa Ghosh (17 runs), Ellyse Perry (35 runs), and captain Smriti Mandhana (31 runs) spoke to JioCinema and Sports18 on ‘Match Centre Live’.
Smriti Mandhana said: “I said it in the last press conference that we won’t take the unnecessary pressure for the last 15 seasons of RCB. This was our (WPL) second season. We wanted to play good cricket, but sometimes franchises get linked. It’s not that RCB hasn’t reached the finals before, they’ve been finalists thrice and have played amazing cricket, but unfortunately, they weren’t able to lift the trophy. Not only the women, but this is the start of something cool for the franchise as a whole because the management deserves this.”
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Meanwhile, Ellyse Perry said: “The bowling in the back end of the tournament has been exceptional, and a lot of that is just staying nice and calm, holding your nerve when big moments come along. We have got some of the best spinners in the world in our team who have contributed. Crucially, it’s been Shreyanka and Asha as local Indian players and we had the overseas players to complement that. I think that makes our spin quartet and then the pacers have chipped in at different times.”
However, Richa Ghosh also opened up on overcoming the disappointment of a one-run loss to Delhi Capitals, earlier this season as well, saying, “Last time, we fell short by one run. I wanted to finish that game but was unable to. Today’s match, I wanted to finish it and that’s what I had planned on doing… I learned a lot. I learned how to finish games after that loss to Delhi. Today, I got to execute and did not want it to go to the end.”
