WPL 2024: Sophie Molineux, Shreyanka Patil, Asha Sobhana's Queendom worthy bowling helped RCB win WPL title

WPL 2024 finals: Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated Delhi Captains by 8 wickets. This was DC's second WPL final in as many years. (Image via X)

Royal Challengers Bangalore - Women have won the first league title for the Bangalore franchise. That a match of this import turned on one over in which Sophie Molineux claimed three wickets - the Delhi Capitals opener Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues and Alice Capsey had to return to pavilion in the eighth over, with DC at 65/3 - gave RCB that additional momentum to carry on with greater confidence.

This whole group has been through a lot in this tournament from a time when we didn’t know we’d make the eliminator, to that crazy eliminator and then the final. The whole group stuck at it. One thing we did for sure was fight back.

- Smriti Mandhana

Verma's was the first wicket to fall in that fateful eighth over - Molineux's second of the evening. Jemimah Rodrigues went for a two-ball duck soon after. Alice Capsey went for duck on the very next ball, setting Molineux up for a hattrick - the hattrick didn't come, but Molineux had set RCB up with a real chance at victory.

Molineux's spectacular spin attack was followed by the very competent and competitive Shreyanka Patil claiming the important wicket of DC captain Meg Lanning - Patil would go on to dismiss three more batters in the match. Asha Sobhana dismissed two world-class batters - Marizanne Kapp and Jess Jonassen - in the 14th over, to decimate DC's batting.

Lanning’s side slumped from 64 for 0 in seven overs to 113 all out inside 18.3 overs. RCB chased down the target with eight wickets in hand and three balls to spare in front of a 29,717-strong crowd at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.

Sophie Molineux - Player of the Match

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Smriti Mandhana heaped praise on Australia left-arm-spin bowling allrounder Sophie Molineux for her match-winning role in RCB’s triumph in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) final against Meg Lanning’s Delhi Capitals on Sunday.

Molineux, 26, turned the match on its head with her triple-wicket second over, the eighth of the Capitals’ innings. Molineux, who was on a hat-trick on the fifth ball of that momentum-shifting over, was adjudged Player of the Match for her eventual figures of 3 for 20, a haul that included the wickets of India batters Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues and England batting allrounder Alice Capsey.

“We've been following her for a very long time,” said Mandhana, reflecting on Molineux’s star turn with the ball, during the post-match press conference. “I remember her bowling against us in the one-day series (during the 2021 tour of Australia), which we nearly won, when we went to Australia, I think she was the difference between the Australian team and the Indian team and, that time, the way she bowled in the last four-five overs, and it always stuck with me somehow - her performance.

“The last two years have been really tough on her with a few injuries. She went through ACL (injury and surgery) and I can feel that ACL pain (having gone through to it myself), so really, really happy for her. The way she came back - she was really clear. Not only today but even in the Eliminator (against Mumbai Indians on Friday) to have that kind of a 19th over. So, really, really happy for her and I think she is definitely a special player.”

Mandhana, the India vice-captain, became the second Indian to lead their side to a WPL trophy, after India captain Harmanpreet Kaur achieved the feat in the inaugural season by beating the same team: Delhi Capitals. An inherently self-effacing person, Mandhana went through a range of emotions during the presser as she recounted her reaction to RCB’s title victory after the team’s initial rush of exhilaration.

“First thing I did was I went to the dressing room and sat. It’s hard to celebrate the way others do. I don’t know… there’s some defect," said the 27-year-old. "More than anything, the way the fans have turned up in each and every match - be it in Bangalore or Delhi… the management… they’ve gone through so much in the last 15 years being so close and all of that.

“They’ve just been amazing throughout. Even last year, when we were not doing well, the only conversation they had was ‘Are you okay?’ which meant a lot as a player. When the management shows that kind of (faith), that’s what you want to play for and win for. First thought for me was, ‘Wow the fans of RCB as a franchise are going to be so happy. The management was in tears. I was really happy to see them.

"This whole group has been through a lot in this tournament from a time when we didn’t know we’d make the eliminator, to that crazy eliminator and then the final. The whole group stuck at it. One thing we did for sure was fight back. Even today, I think we fought back really well. Maybe it is difficult for me to individually express, but there’s a lot of gratitude for the fans and the franchise as a whole and the whole group.”