Renuka Singh Thakur’s addition to the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad final 12 months was seen as a big achievement for the franchise. Earlier than the primary season of the Ladies’s Premier League, Renuka had had a surprising 2022 selecting up 40 wickets in 29 matches throughout white-ball codecs.
However when WPL 2023 started, Renuka – like a lot of the RCB bowling unit – struggled. Within the 16.4 overs she bowled final season, she picked up a solitary wicket, conceded 9.54 runs per over, and had a mean of 159.
On Tuesday on the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Renuka doubled her wicket-tally from 2023 as she bowled a match-winning opening spell towards Gujarat Giants. With figures of two/14 in a four-over burst at first of the match, Renuka pegged the Giants again from the place they by no means recovered, posting 107/7 in 20 overs. It took simply 12.3 overs for RCB to chase it down as Smriti Mandhana entertained a raucous crowd along with her greatest knock within the WPL but, smashing a boundary-filled 43.
Shuffles throughout and smacks a most
@RCBTweets captain Smriti Mandhana is main from the entrance & HOW
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https://t.co/wV0BEgckTA#TATAWPL | #RCBvGG | @mandhana_smriti pic.twitter.com/IMAciGDORz
— Ladies’s Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) February 27, 2024
The 2 gamers who maybe summed up RCB’s struggles final season delivered towards a hapless Giants facet. And after beginning 2023 with 5 defeats in a row, they’ve began this version with back-to-back wins.
Whereas Smriti’s batting kind got here underneath quite a lot of scrutiny, most of RCB’s struggles within the first 12 months had been right down to the bowling unit underperforming. They did properly to handle that within the public sale, with the shrewd addition of Australian spinners Sophie Molineux and Georgia Wareham, the previous displaying her class towards Giants selecting up 3/25 along with her left-arm spin.
However the win was arrange by Renuka, as she dismissed two key left-handers by bowling around the wicket. The primary was Beth Mooney, as she bought the ball to go in with the angle and rattle the stumps. The following was Phoebe Litchfield, getting the ball to maneuver away this time and drawing the batter out to be stumped. Each had been the results of the work Renuka put in on the Nationwide Cricket Academy for the reason that residence season ended.
By way of the gates
Renuka Singh will get the Chinnaswamy crowd going
Gujarat Giants lose Captain Beth Mooney.
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— Ladies’s Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) February 27, 2024
“In India, only one form of supply is not going to assist. We want extra variations, so I’ve labored with (coach) Troy Cooley fairly a bit so as to add on away-swinger, reverse-swinger and slower balls. That’s particularly why I wished to go to the NCA, to work extra on these and health,” Renuka had mentioned earlier than RCB’s first match. She added that she bowled rather a lot from around the wicket throughout that point.
Whereas Smriti’s ball-striking towards Giants is sweet information for RCB, Renuka’s opening burst would please them as a lot. One in every of Renuka’s strengths is dismissing opening batters via the gate, a sight Indian followers bought used to in 2022. There have been indicators of her stepping into that groove once more, as she returned to worldwide cricket within the residence season after a prolonged harm layoff. Admittedly, it was her spell towards the Giants the place she felt she was really again.
Temporary scores: Gujarat Giants 107/7 in 20 overs (Dayalan Hemlatha 31; Sophie Molineaux 3/25, Renuka Singh 2/14) misplaced to Royal Challengers Bangalore 110/2 in 12.3 overs (Smriti Mandhana 43, Sabbhineni Meghana 36 not out) by 8 wickets