After the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Gujarat Giants in the WPL on 27th February, the RCB were able to come back strongly in WPL 2024 and start the tournament on a correct note after forgetting WPL 2023.
In the inaugural edition last season, the Royals didn’t have a season as they would have planned or wished to have faced 5 straight losses at the start of the tournament. They were not able to come back again in the tournament from there and ended the tournament with only 2 wins, seeded 4th in the points table, failing to qualify for the knockout stage of the tournament.
However, this season, the Royals have started the tournament on a high with the plans working right for them in the 1st couple of matches. In the course of doing so, they have managed to achieve some milestones that didn’t work out for them in the previous season.
They bowled the most dot balls in a WPL innings overall bowling 67 dot balls in the whole innings with the most being bowled by Renuka Singh(17 Dot Balls) followed by Sophie Devine(16 Dot Balls) and Sophie Molineux(12 Dot Balls).
The bowling unit restricted the Giants to a total of only 107/7, which is the lowest total for any team in WPL 2024 and also the lowest total scored against RCB in the WPL overall.
It was also the biggest win for the Royals in the WPL overall, the previous best with 27 balls remaining in WPL 2023 against the Gujarat Giants, and also was the biggest win of this WPL so far with the previous best being of Delhi Capitals which was won with 33 balls remaining against the UP Warriorz.
Each of the 5 teams have played a couple of games in the WPL 2024 so far and the Royals are now the table toppers of this WPL season, currently sitting right at the top with 2 wins, of which one came against the UP Warriorz in the 1st game which happened to be a close match with RCB winning on the final ball defending a total of 157 with crucial performances in the batting department with Sabbhineni Meghana and Richa Ghosh reaching her maiden WPL fifty scores and scoring 53 and 62 respectively while with the ball a match-defining performance from S Asha with figures of 5/20 in 4 overs.
In the next game against the Gujarat Giants, Royal Challengers Bangalore put up a clinical performance both with the bat and ball, firstly restricting the Gujarat Giants to a low total of just 107/7 with some amazing bowling from Renuka Singh at the top with figures of 2/14 in her spell of 4 overs and also getting the player of the match along with her was a special performance from Sophie Molineux with figures of 3/25 in 4 overs. In the 2nd innings, the batters chased the target in no time taking only 12.3 overs, and won the match by 8 wickets.
After the 2nd win, RCB along with being the table toppers also had the Best run rate of 1.665 in the WPL 2024 which is the highest amongst all the teams with the next best of 1.222 by Delhi Capitals.