Radha Yadav and Richa Ghosh shared a century stand after a wobbly start to take Royal Challengers Bengaluru to a competitive 182 for 7 against Gujarat Giants in a Women’s Premier League match here on Friday. Radha Yadav (66 off 47) and Ghosh (44 off 28) together scored 105 runs in 11 overs to set the platform for the fighting total. In her previous 22 Women’s Premier League (WPL) outings, Radha Yadav had scored a total of 75 runs. Radha Yadav conjured up almost as many in one innings alone on Friday.
Early wickets were bound to test the batting depth of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at some point this season, and against Gujarat Giants (GG) they had their No.5 walk inside the Powerplay with a WPL average of just over 10.
Radha Yadav couldn’t have chosen a more timely moment to spike that average, and thereby maintain RCB’s winning start as they beat GG by 32 runs. Radha Yadav’s batting promotion by the RCB think-tank had raised eyebrows, only for the left-arm spinner to raise a composed first WPL half-century in return. Her 47-ball 66, partnering Richa Ghosh (44, 28b), for a 105-run fifth-wicket stand not only brought back on track an innings that threatened to derail, but also gave it solid momentum-shifting wheels.
RCB got home to a third straight victory riding that momentum and defending 182/7 on a chasing-friendly DY Patil Stadium with Shreyanka Patil producing a brilliant performace with a ball for her maiden 5-fer to give a 32 runs victory to RCB-Women.
Pitch report and Toss
Pitch Report :  We’re back on Pitch 5, the centre pitch here at the DY Patil Stadium. Let me quickly give you the dimensions: it’s 56 metres on either side of the wicket, and 66 metres straight down the ground. We’ll take a closer look at the surface in a moment, but there’s an interesting statistic to note; since the 2024 final, no team has won the toss and chosen to bat first. The main reason is that the wicket actually changes between innings.
During twilight, you tend to see a lot more swing here, and there has been some assistance for spin as well. As the dew sets in later, the outfield becomes quite wet. It creates a nice sheen, and the ball really skids on. So teams look at it and think – the wicket gets better. With a lightning-fast outfield and small boundaries, the logic is to bowl first, restrict the opposition, and then chase. Think 180-plus is the bare minimum batting first here.
Around 200 tends to be a winning score. We’ve seen Lauren Bell get some outstanding swing with the new ball. It might also be that teams score a lot more in the back end of the innings – the last 10 overs. Lauren Bell tonight will get another opportunity with the new ball, whether it’s the first or second innings, we’ll wait and see. But because of her height and her ability to shape the ball both away and back in, she’s going to be a real handful here.
She’ll love bowling with the new ball under the twilight sky and getting that movement. If you bat first, you’ve got to put 180 on the board at the very least, to give your bowlers something to work with and avoid being punished too heavily in the second innings. That’s also why RCB have been the most economical side in the powerplay, thanks largely to Lauren Bell with 75% dot balls. However, they’re up against Gujarat Giants, who have been blistering in the powerplay. – reckons Katey Martin and Charles Dagnall.
Toss : GG women skipper Ashleigh Gardner won the toss and chose to bowl first handing a debut to Shivani Singh in the playing XI . RCB-Women skipper Smriti Mandhana batting first made no changes in the playing XI.
Radha Yadav’s stellar 66 and her 105 runs partnership with Richa Ghosh powers RCB to 182 for 7 in 20 overs
The first over of the day, bowled by Renuka Singh, went for 23 runs, and the next five had 22 runs and four wickets. Renuka conceded seven runs off three wide balls, while Grace Harris found the boundary four times – all through the leg side. There was an lbw shout given out which was overturned.
Kashvee Gautam was the first to strike with an inswinger pinning Harris lbw. In her next over, debutant Shivani Singh plucked a one-handed catch at short fine leg to dismiss Dayalan Hemalatha. Renuka made amends on return by having Smriti Mandhana slice a catch to short third. Devine had Gautami Naik plumb in front in the sixth over as RCB slipped to 43 for 4.
Earlier in the evening, RCB scripted a terrific turnaround to post 182 on the board. It was a total that appeared to be nowhere in sight despite the fact that Grace Harris kickstarted the game with four boundaries in the very first over. A big inswinger from Gautam got rid of her in the following over and from there on RCB just lost their way. Three more wickets fell inside the PowerPlay including that of skipper Smriti Mandhana as RCB were reduced to 43 for 4.
Radha Yadav and Ghosh then joined forces in an attempt to revive the RCB innings and their efforts bore fruit. Radha Yadav first got going against Wareham by slamming her for a six and a four and Ghosh soon got into the act as well to guide RCB to 80 at the halfway mark. With their tails up, both the batters pressed the accelerator to slowly shift the momentum.
Radha Yadav, who was promoted to No. 5, tagged along with Ghosh to first stem the flow of wickets. After two overs of slow going, Radha Yadav took on Wareham for a six and a four. Each over from the eighth to the 17th had at least one boundary in it.
All of Radha Yadav and Ghosh’s fours came through the off side. They were severe on width, and used cuts, and cover and square drives to good effect. Radha Yadav brought up her maiden WPL fifty in the 15th over by which time Ghosh had gotten going. The acceleration brought up only the second century stand between two India batters in the WPL.
At one point, they managed to hit a combined four sixes in the space of three overs with Radha Yadav bringing up her half-century. Wareham finally broke the century partnership in the 17th over of the innings but the stage was then set for de Klerk to come in and make an impact. She ruined Gautam’s figures in her final over by slamming two fours and two sixes to give RCB some much-needed impetus at the death which eventually had a huge say in the final result.
Once Ghosh fell, de Klerk produced a boundary barrage. She whacked two fours and two sixes off the 19th over, taking down Gautam for 22 runs. RCB had some luck along the way as de Klerk was dropped by Ashleigh Gardner, and Radha Yadav got a reprieve thanks to DRS in the 11th over.
Shreyanka Patil’s maiden 5-fer scripts a 3rd-straight win for RCB Women by 32 runs in WPL 2026
Giants got off to a fantastic start in contrast to the one RCB made with the bat. Their experienced pair of Beth Mooney and the in-form Sophie Devine knocked off 32 runs from the first three overs with the Australian contributing 25. However, a sharp return catch from Arundhati Reddy saw the back of Devine and then Shreyanka caused more damage by trapping Mooney leg-before-wicket, overturning the initial decision through the recourse of DRS.
Bell wasn’t able to give RCB another strong start as she missed her lines. Beth Mooney flicked the first ball for four. In Bell’s next over, she picked up a six and two fours as Giants raced to 32 for 0. Arundhati Reddy came on to take a sharp return catch to dismiss Devine. In the next over, Patil used the angle in from around the wicket to trap Mooney lbw.
Things went from bad to worse for the batting side as Shreyanka Patil and Lauren Bell made more inroads to reduce Giants to 63 for 4 at the end of the ninth over. De Klerk then joined the party with the wicket of Georgia Wareham as RCB took complete control of the contest with half the side back in the pavilion. But Fulmali and Kashvee Gautam didn’t give up just yet and kept RCB on their toes.
The middle overs started with Kanika Ahuja getting off to a decent start before Patil went around the wicket again and beat her defence for another lbw. At 70 for 5, the game looked all but done.
But Bharti Fulmali and Gautam had other ideas. Fulmali dined on anything full, and cleared the boundaries with ease. RCB dropped a couple of chances – first Fulmali by Smriti Mandhana off Arundhati Reddy’s bowling in the 13th over, and then Kashvee by Reddy off de Klerk’s bowling in the 15th. With a partnership growing at pace – more on that later – Patil returned and dismissed Kashvee with a loopy ball that was hit to long-on.
Fulmali first took on Arundhati for a six and a four, and followed it up with two more sixes in the following over to cause panic in the RCB camp. Gautam then contributed with a six off her own as Giants now put themselves in a position where they needed 61 from the final five overs.
The boundaries didn’t stop as GG’s batters kept going for big shots. But their chances faded quickly when Bell returned to fox Fulmali with a slower ball. Two balls later, she bowled another slower one to dismiss Shivani. Patil finished off the game in the 19th over by striking twice.
Shreyanka Patil then came into the attack and got them the breakthrough they desperately needed by getting rid of Gautam with Fulmali now carrying her side’s hopes. However, bowling her final over, Bell put the contest to bed once and for all with a double-wicket over that included the wicket of Fulmali. Shreyanka Patil then picked up the final two wickets in the penultimate over to complete her five-fer and give RCB a breezy win.
GG needed their three big foreign guns in the top four to fire, and the chase lost its steam once Beth Mooney, Sophie Devine and captain Ashleigh Gardner fell inside seven overs. Bharti Fulmali’s 20-ball 39 sprang some hope until her dismissal by Lauren Bell (3/29) in the 17th over, after which Shreyanka Patil completed a fifer.
Presentations and Road Ahead
Ashleigh Gardner the losing GG-Women skipper said : Â Yeah, obviously we wanted to bowl first and, you know, finally winning that toss and doing what we wanted. We felt like there was a little bit in the wicket early if we could do what we needed to do. And I think, you know, we set the game up and then I think, yeah, Radha obviously batted brilliantly. We probably fed our strength for way too long and then she kind of got going and then obviously we know the threat that Richa possesses.
And unfortunately, we weren’t able to, I guess, pull them back quicker than probably what we should have. So yeah, I still think 180 was very gettable. And it just shows when a top-order batter for our team doesn’t, you know, score those, score those important runs at the top. Yeah, it kind of leaves us a little bit short. (on chasing) Yeah, I think so. And, you know, conditions can kind of dictate that as well.
You know, looking at the last couple of games, we felt like chasing was a real option. But then I guess looking at our track record, we almost scored 200 in our first three games setting. So that’s probably something that we need to have a look at going into Baroda, obviously, a different venue as well. And we just probably need to assess that really quickly. You know, we’ve a pretty short turnaround after we travel.
So making sure that, you know, we’ve got those things in place with whatever we do first, you know, I think there was lots of great glimpses tonight with the ball and then with the bat, obviously, we just were, you know, not good enough. (good to see resistance from the lower middle-order?) Yeah, absolutely.
And, you know, where we speak about one of the top four or five kind of being there till the 15th so then those girls have the opportunity to kind of do what they do best and really finish off, finish off an innings. And obviously tonight they probably batted for a little bit longer than what we would have liked.
But I think it still shows the class that they have, we know the talent that Kashvee has with both and ball and someone like Bharti to come in and clear the ropes pretty early on in our innings. It’s really pleasing to see, but I think where we let ourselves slip was probably not having that top-order batter to kind of bat through and then having those girls come in around us to set the platform and then go big at the end.
(on their next game) Yeah, well, we head there tomorrow. So, you know, it’s a pretty quick turnaround and, you know, these competitions happen really quickly and it’s, for us, it’s being able to stay really present. You know, Maxi (Klinger) at the start of the tournament said that we are gonna stay consistent and level whether we win or lose. And I think that’s super important in these competitions. They come thick and fast.
And, you know, it’s shown that, you know, it’s been challenging for bowlers throughout this and tonight we obviously got challenged with the bat, making sure that we take the positives out of what was tonight’s game and even last time’s game as well when we lost that as well. So there’s plenty of positives, which is always a great thing. And I guess plenty of learnings out of that as well.
Smriti Mandhana the winning RCB-Women skipper said : Yeah, it was good. I mean, all the girls and the partnership between Radha and Richa was something really special to watch. And then, yeah, Shrey coming in and bowling those overs, crucial overs and getting those crucial wickets.
I mean, overall, the whole team performed really well today. (on Radha’s promotion) Well, she’s always played that role for the state cricket for Baroda. And she’s always done well, even when India A toured Australia A.
We knew that she always bats at that order. And we always look at her as a finisher. But I feel that order was something….Then when we lost out on Pooja for the first four, five matches where we thought of her pre-auction, then I mean the easiest swap was Radha because she’s done that for the state team.
And I mean, as WPL, I mean, it’s an Indian league and if someone’s batted at that order in the state cricket, you should back them to do that. And yeah, I mean, when you do that, they come good. (were you confident of defending this?) Well, with DY Patil and the dew you don’t know what’s a good total.
But with our bowling, the way we’ve bowled in the first two matches and I mean the variety which we have, we have two quality left-arm spinners, good offspinner again with pace bowling options as well. We have Bell, Aroo and Nadine. So I mean, when you have that sort of a variety and everyone can deliver under pressure.
So, so for sure, I mean, we had that confidence, but again, you can’t be too overconfident at DY Patil. (areas to work on?) We’ve definitely dropped two catches today and both were sitters. So that’s something which we really back our pride ourselves to be a really good fielding side with the kind of fielders everyone we have. So that’s not something which is acceptable.
And yeah, again, delivery, delivering. I don’t think in terms of other ways there’s something which we can definitely work on is the middle-order where we’re losing wickets in again back to back wickets. That’s something which we’ll have an eye on and we’ll keep working on. Again, there’s a lot of areas we can still work on.
Radha Yadav Player of the match for her brilliant 66 runs said : I enjoyed it a lot. The conversation I had with Richa was very crucial. It wasn’t an easy situation to bat in as we had lost four wickets. I will give full credit to Richa for the way she spoke to me. I know I have the shots, the game, the temperament and everything but the way Richa passed on the confidence was very important.
(what was the chat with Richa?) She told me to be calm, see what the opposition were doing, dot balls will come, don’t worry. We can capitalise later on as we have the shots. The belief she had on me gave me a lot of confidence. (favorite shot?) The first ball I faced I middled, I then knew I have done this before for the state and for India A. So I had that confidence.
But to do it here for the first time on this stage gives me a lot of joy. (thoughts on your back foot six) I think RX sir (RX Murali – batting coach for RCB) has worked a lot on my power-hitting so I have to credit him for that. (how would you celebrate this win?) The match is done, we won, so work done. That’s it. I also want to say something – Shreyu bowled really well, it’s not so easy to bowl as a spinner in such dewy conditions, so I want to share this award with her.
A crucial half-century from Radha Yadav and a maiden five-fer in WPL for Shreyanka Patil helped RCB make it three in three and stay two points clear at the top of the table. There were vital contributions from the likes of Richa Ghosh, Nadine de Klerk and Lauren Bell as well, as the 2024 champions resisted a fiery knock from Bharti Fulmali in the chase to eventually beat Gujarat Giants by 32 runs.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) completed a hat-trick of wins thanks to a 105-run stand between Richa Ghosh and Radha Yadav, followed by a five-for from Shreyanka Patil and a three-for from Lauren Bell. It means RCB are still the only unbeaten team in WPL 2026 so far.
Ghosh and Radha’s partnership lifted RCB from 43 for 4 to 148, before they finished on 182 for 7. RCB were also aided by Nadine de Klerk’s cameo of 26 from 12 balls at the end. In the chase, many of Gujarat Giants’ (GG) batters got off to starts, but none of them could convert it, which meant there was only one fifty-plus partnership in their innings before they suffered a 32-run loss.
A superb performance from Shreyanka Patil headlines RCB-W’s third win in a row. She led the way with a fifer. She is being hugged by Shrubsole and Malolan Rangarajan. Devine and Mooney started off well but Arundhati broke that stand with a sharp catch. Mooney was looking dangerous as she took on Bell and smashed her.
But Shreyanka struck by getting her LBW and then Gardner went soon after. From there it was always tough but powerful blows from Kashvee and Bharti kept Gujarat in the hunt. Shreyanka broke that dangerous stand and when Bharti fell, that was the final nail in the coffin. When Shreyanka came for her final over, she was on 3 wickets and duly took the last two to finish with a deserved fifer. Consecutive losses for GG-W.
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