In Match No. 12 of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2025, Royal Challengers Bengaluru Women were forced to bat first by Gujarat Giants Women, and all they could manage was 125/7.
At the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday, February 27, the Gujarat team won the match by six wickets and had little to no issue chasing the low total posted by Smriti Mandhana & Co.
After choosing to bowl first in the tournament’s opening match, Ashleigh Gardner’s team immediately applied pressure to the RCB hitters. The home team has only managed to score 26 runs after losing three wickets during the powerplay. RCB reached 125 for 7 in the innings thanks to a crucial 48-run partnership between Kanika Ahuja and Raghvi Bist, followed by Georgia Wareham’s 20 off 21 balls.
Tanuja Kanwar was Gujarat’s best bowler, however Deandra Dottin also claimed a few wickets. In addition, Gardner and Kashvee Gautam each contributed one wicket to their respective totals.
Gujarat scored 30/1 in the powerplay, setting up a cautious start to the chase. Harleen Deol was removed in the tenth over (5 off 10 balls), giving RCB a slim chance to win the match again. It was only a dream, though, as Gardner’s ferocious batting destroyed the celebration for Smriti Mandhana bowlers and sealed the victory, giving her team their second of the year.
Talking Points
The garden city is sprayed by the gardener.
The conditions were good for scoring runs when batting at Chinnaswamy, as Ashleigh Gardner sent looser balls away for boundaries. She hit three sixes and six balls that reached the fence in her 58-run knock off just 31 balls. She was a worthy winner of Player of the Match after taking a crucial wicket of Ellyse Perry early in the match.
RCB suffers their third straight defeat.
The Bengaluru team had lost their previous two games against the Mumbai Indians Women and the UP Warriorz, making this most recent defeat their third straight of the season. Bengaluru would aim to win the final three games and earn a spot in the playoffs without relying on the outcomes of other clubs in order to defend their crown. With four points from five games, they are now in third place. On March 1 in Bengaluru, they will square off against the Delhi Capitals Women, two-time finalists, in Match 14.
Who Said What?
Smriti Mandhana, Losing Captain, said
I don’t think we batted well in the powerplay, including myself. We tried too hard and didn’t read the conditions well. We tried to get 170-180 but the wicket was a lot different than the other games. (Third loss in a row) the first two games we still played well but ended up losing, but today’s loss will really hurt us because of all three departments. But we have to take it and we have to take these things in our stride.
All three departments we want to improve, not just one. As a team we all have to step up, last three games we haven’t played our best game and need to come back stronger. (On Kanika Ahuja and Raghvi Bist) they’ve done well in domestic cricket. Kanika missed out last year and Raghu has a really good head on her shoulders.
Ash Gardner, Player of the Match and Winning Captain, said
Over the last couple of games we didn’t bat the way waned to. Credit for the bowlers tonight, particularly TK and Kashvee. Chasing a low total also gives you the freedom to play your shots and be positive. It’s really nice, that first game we should have won. But that’s cricket, people can outplay you. Today we quietened the crowd, which people want to do here. It’s just the trend of the WPL for now, without much dew. The game against DC there was a lot of seam movement so it was a challenging wicket.
But today was a lot nicer and flat. We’ve seen different conditions and now we’re off to Lucknow where I’ve not played before. We want to get better at the powerplay with bat in hand, today we lost just one wicket. Earlier we lost four and it’s hard to come back from that. Pleased to see how the batters went about their job. We’re trying to reset and out bowlers are doing a fantastic job and we wanted to keep putting up wins on the board.
India
