Beth Mooney, Laura Wolvaardt information Gujarat Giants to first win of season

The Gujarat Giants secured their first win of the 2024 Ladies’s Premier League season on Wednesday after beating the Royal Challengers Bangalore by 19 runs on the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.

Captain Beth Mooney (85 not out) and fellow opening batter Laura Wolvaardt (76) dismissed their poor type to sew collectively a 140-run partnership – the second-highest within the match’s historical past – to take the giants to 199/5.

Chasing a mammoth 200, the Royal Challengers Bangalore might solely muster 180/8 to dent their hopes of securing a top-three end. The likes of Smriti Mandhana (24), Ellyse Perry (24), Sophie Devine (23) and Richa Ghosh (30) acquired off to good begins however couldn’t stick round to information the group house.

Bangalore wanted to get runs on the board rapidly within the powerplay overs however some good bowling by the Giants bowlers put Bangalore on the back-foot.

Ashleigh Gardner and Meghana Singh have been very good within the first two overs, freely giving simply seven runs. Mandhana went after Tanuja Kanwar within the subsequent over, smacking 17 runs together with two large sixes.

Nonetheless, Gardner got here again into the assault to entice the Bangalore captain with a supply that skidded on after pitching and rapped Mandhana on the pads. Sabbhineni Meghana’s pained 13-ball keep got here to an finish as Wolvaardt and Mooney mixed to run her out as Bangalore slipped to 43/2 after seven overs.

Perry and Devine steadied the ship for Bangalore briefly however might not likely communicate with the required fee as each departed inside an area of few overs leaving Banglore struggling at 96/4 after 13.

Ghosh and Georgia Wareham (48) tried to muster a fightback but it surely was too little too late because the Giants wrapped up a very good win.

Having gained the toss and selecting to bat first, the Giants acquired off to the right begin with Mooney and Wolvaardt racing to 59/0 within the power-play overs.

The Giants’ batting has been under par this season however on Wednesday, Mooney and Wolvaardt confirmed their class and have been generously helped by some poor bowling by the Bangalore bowlers. On a very good batting monitor, the duo solely wanted to search out the gaps because the Bangalore bowlers struggled with their line and size.

So as to add to Bangalore captain Mandhana’s headache, her bowlers additionally conceded a record-equalling 17 extras, simply two days after conceding the identical variety of extras in opposition to the UP Warriorz.

Wolvaardt introduced up her half-century within the ninth over, hitting Perry for 3 boundaries in a row. With greater than 10 overs to go, the South African seemed prime to develop into the primary centurion in Ladies’s Premier League historical past.

Nonetheless, Wolvaardt ran herself out going for a dangerous single and the Giants’ run fee slowed down only a contact within the subsequent couple of overs as new batter Phoebe Litchfield took time to settle in. On the different finish, Mooney stored her group heading in the right direction to go previous the 210-run mark.

On the finish of the 18th over, the Giants have been 187/1 with Mooney on 79 and really nicely on her solution to a deserved century. Nonetheless, all of it got here to a grinding halt for the Giants.

Litchfield was run out after being referred to as for a dangerous single by Mooney. Gardner departed for a golden duck the following ball. New batter D Hemalatha stored strike for the ultimate over solely to be dismissed with the primary ball.

With Mooney on 83 runs, new batter Veda Krishnamurthy performed two balls earlier than giving the strike to her captain. Mooney acquired a few the third ball earlier than operating out her third teammate on the evening the very subsequent ball.

The Giants might have nonetheless reached 200 with two runs off the ultimate ball just for Mooney to slide and fall after finishing one run.

Although it was not the perfect finish to the Giants’ innings, their bowlers would go on to make sure it was sufficient to safe the win on the evening.

Regardless of the loss, Bangalore are in second place with six factors from as many video games having performed one sport greater than the opposite 4 groups.