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A valiant 66 from Sophie Devine went in vain as Royal Challengers Bangalore suffered a 11-run defeat against Gujarat Giants for their third straight loss of WPL 20233 at the Brabourne Stadium, here on Wednesday.
With immense pressure of chasing down 202, Sophie slammed eight fours and two sixes in her 45-ball knock while sharing a 54-run opening partnership with Smriti Mandhana and a promising stand of 43 runs with Ellyse Perry. Heather Knight also landed some big blows. But Gujarat taking five wickets after the half-way stage meant Bangalore ended up at 190/6 in 20 overs and are now rooted to the bottom of points table. Smriti got Bangalore's chase off to a solid start by hitting two boundaries off Tanuja Kanwer in the second over. Sophie joined the party by slashing and pulling off Kim Garth to collect back-to-back fours, with Smriti ending the over with her trademark cover drive. Sophie upped the ante by pulling off Ashleigh Gardner for four while clipping, bringing a forehand smash and slap down the ground against Annabel Sutherland for a hat-trick of boundaries in the fifth over. Bangalore lost Smriti in the fifth over when she miscued a heave to mid-on off Ashleigh in the last over of power-play. Though they slowed down a little, Ellyse hit five delightful boundaries to give much-needed acceleration to Bangalore's chase. Just when it looked like Ellyse would shift gears, Mansi Joshi took her out as the right-handed batter gave a simple catch to backward point. Though Richa Ghosh's stumps were in a mess against Ashleigh Gardner, Sophie continued to march forward. As Kim Garth made a return to the bowling attack in the 13th over, Sophie took a brace of boundaries through mid-wicket and long-off, before getting her fifty in 36 balls. After slogging off Tanuja over deep mid-wicket, Sophie pulled off Annabel into the same region. But on the very next ball, she holed out to long-on. Despite losing Sophie, Heather reverse-swept and chipped over cover off Ashleigh. She then tore into an erring Annabel, hitting a hat-trick of well-timed fours in the 17th over. From the other end, Kanika Ahuja took two boundaries off Sneh Rana, but was stumped off Ashleigh in the 19th over. Annabel took out Poonam Khemnar on the first ball of the last over, and despite Shreyanka Patil hitting a six and four respectively, she was able to defend 24 in the final over as Gujarat got off the mark in points table. Brief Scores: Gujarat Giants 201/7 in 20 overs (Harleen Deol 67, Sophia Dunkley 65; Heather Knight 2/17, Shreyanka Patil 2/32) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 190/6 in 20 overs (Sophie Devine 66, Ellyse Perry 32; Ashleigh Gardner 3/32, Annabel Sutherland 2/56) by 11 runs. --IANS nr/ak ( 481 Words) 2023-03-08-23:18:03 (IANS)
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