The 13th match of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2024 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi, between Gujarat Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore, turned out to be a run-fest with 379 runs scored in the match (aggregate).
Beth Mooney Gujarat Giants’ captain won the toss and chose to bat first and became the 1st captain to bat first after winning the toss in WPL 2024.
The Giants openers Beth Mooney and Laura Wolvaardt gave a flying start to the team, registering their 1st wicketless powerplay in the WPL, scoring 59 runs in the first six overs. There was no stopping for the pair as they went on to build a 100-run opening partnership which was also the 1st 100-run partnership for the Giants for any wicket in the WPL.
Laura Wolvaardt became the 1st player to score a fifty in WPL 2024 for the Giants and was followed by Beth Mooney. Both of them recorded their highest scores in WPL of 76(45) and 85*(51) respectively and stitched a record partnership of 140 runs, the highest in WPL 2024.
2nd Highest opening partnership in WPL
Shafali Verma, Meg Lanning 162 VS RCB 2023
Laura Wolvaardt, Beth Mooney 140 VS RCB 2024
Devika Vaidya, Alyssa Healy 139* VS RCB 2023
Smriti Mandhana, Sophie Devine 125 VS GG 2023
Shafali Verma, Meg Lanning 119 VS UPW 2024
At the end of 20 overs, the Gujarat Giants went on to score 199 runs for the loss of 5 wickets and set a target of 200 runs for the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Highest Totals in WPL
DC Women 223/2 VS RCB Women 2023
DC Women 211/4 VS UPW Women 2023
MI Women 207/5 VS GG Women 2023
GG Women 201/7 VS RCB Women 2023
GG Women 199/5 VS RCB Women 2024
Returning to chase, the Royal Challengers Bangalore never looked in control throughout the innings, losing wickets at regular intervals with batters getting starts but not converting them into big scores.
Towards the end, Georgia Wareham played a quick cameo of 48 runs off 22 balls which is now the highest score by a batter at 6 in the WPL, and made sure that the Royals did not lose by a big margin. Eventually, the Giants won the match by 19 runs which is only the 2nd time that a team won the match after electing to bat first in WPL, and both of the wins happened to be for the Gujarat Giants against the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Orange cap list
Smriti Mandhana – 6 matches 243 runs
Meg Lanning – 5 matches 201 runs
S Meghana – 6 matches 168 runs
Alice Capsey – 5 matches 167 runs
Grace Harris – 5 matches 158 runs
Purple cap list
Jess Jonassen – 3 matches 9 wickets
Radha Yadav – 5 matches 8 wickets
Marizanne Kapp – 4 matches 8 wickets
Sophie Ecclestone – 5 matches 7 wickets
Sophie Molineux – 6 matches 7 wickets
