Last Update: March 08, 2023, 21:57 IST
Harleen Deol top-scored for Gujarat Giants. (pic credit: TW/wplt20)
Sophia Dunkley hits fastest fifty of inaugural season to lay foundation of massive total
Half-centuries from Sophia Dunkley (65) and Harleen Deol (67) helped Gujarat Giants post 201 for seven against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) in Mumbai on Wednesday.
RCB bowlers were thrashed for the third consecutive match at the Brabourne Stadium and the opposition team scored more than 200 for the second time.
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Dunkley tore apart RCB’s bowling attack, scoring 65 off just 28 balls with 11 fours and three sixes at a strike rate of 232.1 at the top. He also registered the fastest half-century of WPL so far.
Deol, on the other hand, stitched a crucial partnership to bring up his maiden WPL half-century, scoring 67 off 45 balls with nine fours and a six.
Deol also got two lives at the end of the innings when Preeti Bose missed a tough chance on 61 and Richa Ghosh missed a regulation stumping soon after.
After Sabbhineni Meghna played the first over, Dunkley hit Perry for a couple of fours in the second over and Megan Schutt in the third over to take the lead in successive fours.
Meghna soon joined in, hitting Perry for her third boundary of the over, but she was caught by Richa on the last ball after scoring 8 runs off 11 balls, which included two fours.
Read also: Sophia Dunkley of Gujarat Giants hit the fastest fifty of WPL 2023
Dunkley released his power game after a slow start, welcoming Renuka Singh with a beautiful six over the cover region.
The England batsman took a particular liking to Bose, hitting the RCB spinner for 23 runs in the fifth over with four fours and a six and a brilliant 18-ball 50 studded with nine fours and two sixes.
The right-handed batsman continued his onslaught by hitting a six and a four off Shreyanka Patil to put on a 50-run partnership with Deol off just 26 balls. However, Patil hit a single straight to Heather Knight at long-off off Dunkley to end her innings.
Deol and Ashleigh Gardner (19) then shared a half-century partnership of more than nine runs in an over. Deol took charge and picked up from where Dunkley had left off, hitting Perry over mid-on for a four and hitting Schutt for a six and a four in the 12th over.
Knight then dismissed Gardner when he stumped the Gujarat batsman in the 14th over after scoring 19 runs in 15 balls.
Gardner and Deol added 53 runs in 36 balls for the third wicket.
Dayalan Hemlata (16) and Annabel Sutherland (14) added some valuable runs in a short span of time to help Gujarat cross the 200-run mark.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)
