Grace Harris played at her destructive best and helped RCB dominate UP Warriorz in a thumping win. With a 9-wicket win, RCB climbed to the top of the table. She shared a 137-run partnership with Smriti Mandhana (47*) off just 69 balls. The RCB openers made 78 runs in the powerplay.
Warriorz experimented with their opening combination, with Harleen Deol coming out to bat with Meg Lanning. However, this experiment didn’t get the desired result. Harleen got out for just 11 after hitting a couple of boundaries. Meg Lanning also got an early reprieve when a low catch touched the ground before Arundhati Reddy pouched it. Shreyanka Patil picked two wickets in the 8th over to dent UP Warriorz further.
After that, Nadine de Klerk also dented UP Warriorz with two wickets. By the halfway mark, UPW could only make 56/5. Deandra Dottin broke the shackles after 14 overs with a six and four off Patil. That set up the death overs for UPW. They collected 43 runs in the last four overs. It meant that UPW could only get to 143 in their 20 overs. However, this total was not enough to trouble the RCB women.
Harris and Mandhana came out with positive intent and started the innings with all guns blazing. The duo dealt in boundaries in the first five overs and went to 46/0 in five. Then, in the final powerplay over, Harris unleashed carnage by punishing Dottin for 32 runs. The 32 run over from Dottin became the joint most expensive over in the history of WPL.
Mandhana then started to up the ante by welcoming Sophie Ecclestone with back-to-back boundaries. At the same time, Harris scored a four and a six off Asha Shobhana to take RCB past the 100-run mark in the 8th over.
Harris made 85 before being dismissed, but she did her job. RCB sent Richa Ghosh one down with only 7 runs needed. In the end, RCB won the game by 9 wickets with 7.5 overs in hand.
