What you need to know about WPL 2024 Purple Cap Shreyanka Patil

RCB bowler Shreyanka Patil with the WPL 2024 trophy. (Image source: Mufaddal Vohra via X/@mufaddal_vohra)

Delhi Capitals’ captain, Meg Lanning, should have been wary of Shreyanka Patil’s abilities with the ball. Just a week before the Women’s Premier League (WPL) final on Sunday, the offie had trapped Lanning and finished with four wickets, though Patil’s side, Royal Challengers Bangalore, eventually lost that tie by one run.

Come Sunday, the script was slightly different. Patil wreaked havoc yet again, though this time around, she finished on the winning side to help Bangalore to their first WPL title.

After Sophie Molineux provided the breakthrough to reduce Delhi to 64 for three, Patil stepped up against Lanning. And as fate would have it, Lanning was trapped yet again by the wily spinner. By the time Patil wrapped up the tail, accounting for Minnu Mani, Arundhati Reddy and Taniya Bhatia, Delhi had been bundled out for just 113 runs. In turn, Bangalore had little trouble in chasing down the modest total.

It’s been a recurring theme for Patil, ever since her breakthrough last year. She was picked up by Bangalore for the inaugural WPL season at Rs 10 lakh and finished with six wickets in seven matches, the most for her team. In September, she featured in the Caribbean Premier League as part of Guyana Amazon Warriors and finished with the most wickets (9) in the tournament. Those performances were enough to earn her an India call-up for the series against England.

Given the reputation she had gathered, a lot was expected of Patil in the second season of the WPL. But her first match was memorable for different reasons, where she was smashed for 32 runs while ending her spell without a wicket. In fact, after four matches, she had just two wickets to her name and to make matters worse, suffered an injury that forced her to miss the next two ties.

Patil took time off not only to recover, but also worked on her technique alongside her coach, Arjun Dev. On her return, she bagged 11 wickets in four matches, which included the key wickets of Hayley Matthews and Harmanpreet Kaur in the Eliminator against Mumbai Indians, and which culminated in Bangalore’s triumph on Sunday. By the end of the tournament, she had 13 wickets in eight matches to her credit that included two four-wicket hauls. It earned her the Purple Cap, which is a mark of her true potential at just 21 years.

Cricket runs in the Patil family. Her father, Rajesh, runs an academy where his daughter picked up the sport at the age of 10. The early days were all about experimentation, where she tried everything from bowling medium pace to leg spin, before finding comfort as an off spinner. Patil soon moved to a rented accommodation to hone her skills at Dev’s academy in Huttanahalli. Those early sacrifices have paid off and there’s a lot more in store for the youngster in the time ahead. But for now, she’ll soak in all the good things that come with a glittering trophy and a brand-new purple cap.