Royal Challengers Bangalore are WPL champions
ft. Ashwin's greatness underappreciated by his own, Brook withdraws from IPL
The Royal Challengers Bangalore women have done in two years what the men couldn’t in 16. RCB won the 2024 Women’s Premier League, defeating the Delhi Capitals in the final by eight wickets.
After a dreadful campaign a year ago, a few key additions and some learned lessons sparked RCB to finish the tournament off in style, winning three must-win matches on the trot after losing a 1-run heart breaker to Delhi to lift the trophy.
First, Ellyse Perry took a magnificent 6-for-15 to help crush the Mumbai Indians in the final group stage game to qualify for the Eliminator. Then, in the Eliminator, RCB looked in deep trouble at 23/3 inside four overs batting first, and then 49/4 and 84/5 as well. That woman Perry, though, sparkled again with 66 off 50 with eight fours and a six while Georgia Wareham’s late cameo lifted the total to a respectable 135/6 off 20 overs. In response, Mumbai looked in control after the 17th over at 116/3 with a well set Amelia Kerr and captain Harmanpreet Kaur at the crease and needing 20 runs off 18 balls.
Emerging Player of the Tournament Shreyanka Patil then conceded just four runs off the 18th over including the wicket of Kaur, Australia’s Sophie Molineux then also picked up a wicket and conceded four runs off the 19th, before Trivandrum’s Asha Sobhana successfully defending 12 off the final over by conceding just six runs and taking another wicket.
In the final, everything went right for Delhi early — a side that had won all four matches against RCB across the two seasons coming in. After captain Meg Lanning won the toss and elected to bat, Lanning and Shafali Verma smashed 61 off the first six overs without the loss of a wicket to leave RCB captain Smriti Mandhana desperate for answers.
The answer was once again her spinners, Molineux in particular raising her hand and pinning the Capitals back with three wickets in the eighth over and the first wicket of Verma 44 off 27 triggering a collapse. With a window of opportunity, Patil and Shobana further ran through the side and Delhi went from 64/0 to 87/7 before being bundled out for 113. RCB’s spin trio finished with combined figures of 10.3-0-46-9. The other wicket was a direct hit run out by Molineux.
In the chase, RCB decided that slow and steady wins the race and never looked to take unnecessary risks and kept wickets in hand while staying within striking distance of the required run rate. Mandhana and Sophie Devine would have eased nerves with an opening partnership of 49 in 8.1 overs while Mandhana added another 33 with Perry. Richa Ghosh and Perry expertly finished the job from there with Ghosh hitting the winning boundary wide of long-off.
Australia’s excellent run of success over the past year continues with the win, as three of the permitted four foreigners in the RCB side are Aussies (Perry, Wareham, Molineux).
In addition to winning Emerging Player of the Tournament, 21-year-old off-spinner Patil finished with the Purple Cap as the leading wicket-taker with 13, one ahead of both Sobhana and Molineux who finished with 12 apiece. Perry finished with the Orange Cap as the leading run-getter with 347 runs at an average of 69.40 in nine innings.
As an aside, think about the greatness of Perry as an athlete that she’s won the Orange Cap (as an all-rounder who took 6-for-15 in a do-or-die match to qualify for the eliminator) and the WPL, has won the ODI World Cup and the T20 World Cup with Australia, and has also represented her country at the FIFA World Cup scoring a goal of this quality (thank you to my friend Neel for sending this to me):
SILLY POINT
Ravichandran Ashwin has become the No. 1 Test bowler in the world again after India’s handsome 4-1 series victory over England capped off by him taking nine wickets in the fifth and final Test (which was also his 100th Test). He is now up to 516 wickets which is ninth all-time and 103 behind India’s all-time leading wicket-taker Anil Kumble having bowled in 47 fewer innings.
He is arguably India’s greatest spinner and still may go down as someone who was undervalued by his own country. For all his accomplishments, Ashwin wasn’t considered good enough to be in the playing XI for the 2023 ODI World Cup final nor the 2023 and 2021 World Test Championship finals. India lost all three finals, making it all the more of a “what if?”
People cite his away record as being the reason for not making the WTC final teams, but those finals were played in England where he’s taken 18 wickets in seven Tests at an average of 28.41 and a strike rate of a wicket every 67 balls. For some perspective, Kumble’s career strike rate across all conditions was a wicket every 66 balls.
It’s almost as if Ashwin became a victim of his own phenomenal home success rate where he took a wicket every 46 balls. Being ridiculously dominant at home should not have diminished the fact that he was still very good away from home. Some might pick at his overall numbers in Australia and say that he averages over 42 there and took a wicket every 86 balls.
I think most would agree that Ashwin is someone who has consistently worked at his craft and evolved over time. His numbers in Australia are actually skewed by six Tests he played there between 2011-2015 where he took a wicket every 97 balls while conceding 54.71 runs per wicket. In four Tests in Australia since 2016, Ashwin has cut his bowling average in half to 27.50 at a strike rate of 70. For comparison, Nathan Lyon is considered the premium spinner in his home conditions and he averages 30.88 in Australia at a strike rate of 64. Thankfully, India has won the last two Test series in Australia so there’s little to complain about, but the idea that Ashwin is a home track bully is a myth.
South Africa is really the only country that he hasn’t figured out, having played seven Tests there at an average of 49.63 and strike rate of 110.
If I’m being brutally honest, the introverted Indians always seem to get the short end of the stick regardless of stature. Kumble, too, missed out on playing the 2003 World Cup final. Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ambati Rayudu, maybe now Sanju Samson, the list goes on. It’s a cultural problem that has hurt Indian cricket in important moments.
SLIP CATCHING
It’s been a while so this is a bit of an extended catch-up:
Islamabad United will play the Multan Sultans in the PSL final in Karachi on Monday at 12pm EST.
Former Pakistan star pace bowler Aaqib Javed has joined Sri Lanka as a fast bowling coach and will work with the team until at least the end of the 2024 men’s T20 World Cup.
Sri Lanka fast bowler Dilshan Madushanka — one of the leading wicket-takers at the 2023 men’s ODI World Cup — has picked up a hamstring injury and will miss the remainder of the Bangladesh tour as well as the initial stages of the IPL. He plays for the Mumbai Indians.
Former Australian great Shane Watson and currently coach of the PSL’s Quetta Gladiators has pulled out of the race to be the new head coach of Pakistan after previously becoming the leading candidate.
Mumbai are Ranji Trophy champions for a record 42nd time after defeating Vidarbha by 169 runs in the final. Shardul Thakur initially rescued Mumbai in the first innings with the team at 111/6, scoring 75 off 69 take them to 224 all out. After bowling Vidarbha out for just 105, Mumbai put up 418 in the second innings courtesy 136 from Musheer Khan, 95 from Shreyas Iyer, and 73 for captain Ajinkya Rahane. Needing a mammoth 538 to win, Vidarbha managed 368 with captain and wicket-keeper Akshay Wadkar scoring 102 while Karun Nair managed 74. Playing his last first-class match, Dhawal Kulkarni dismissed Umesh Yadav for the final wicket.
England rising star Harry Brook has withdrawn from IPL 2024 due to the passing of his grandmother. He was selected by the Delhi Capitals in the auction.
The ICC has announced stop clocks will be a permanent addition to ODIs and T20Is in an effort to speed up over rates. These clocks will count down 60 seconds between each over, with the first two violations resulting in an umpire’s warning and each subsequent offence resulting in a five-run penalty. Furthermore, once the cut-off time has passed, the fielding side will only be permitted four fielders outside the cirlce instead of five for whatever overs remain.