Former Australia cricketer and commentator Mel Jones reckoned that the crowd noise during the toss at Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) first home game in the Women's Premier League (WPL) was louder than what all of the Bollywood stars got at the opening ceremony. It may not have been wrong as RCB skipper Smriti Mandhana in her first home game in the WPL couldn't even hear herself as soon as Mel Jones called her for a chat during the toss.
The crowd went absolutely wild as soon as Mandhana's name was announced. Jones stopped midway during her first question to Mandhana. RCB captain started speaking but stopped very soon to soak in the atmosphere. Mandhana was overwhelmed, impressed and amazed at the crowd response at the packed M Chinnaswamy Stadium. She even gestured to the crowd to lower their voices to let her speak before she finally went on with it and chatted with Jones.
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It was sold out and it felt like it. 'AaaaaarrrrrCccccccBbbbbbb' was a recurring chant during the second game of WPL 2024 and RCB's opener against the UP Warriorz. And RCB women didn't disappoint the large crowd as Bengaluru witnessed a second consecutive thriller in as many days with the home team prevailing at the end by just two runs.
There were a few heroes for the RCB on the night. Sabbineni Meghana on RCB debut shone with a responsible fifty after her team had lost three big wickets in quick succession. Richa Ghosh then went bersek and smashed a quickfire fifty to give the impetus to her side's innings. 157 didn't feel safe but it was a huge recovery from RCB from 54/3.
With the ball, the spin trio of Asha Sobhana, Georgia Wareham and Sophie Molineux made the UP Warriorz struggle for everyone with the former being the standout becoming the first Indian bowler in WPL to take a five-wicket haul. Asha's three-wicket over that saw her dismiss Shweat Sehrawat, Grace Harris and Kiran Navgire in space of six balls proved to be the turning point as the Warriorz couldn't finish off the job.
