MATCH STORIES
Follow UsOut of nowhere, Royal Challengers Bangalore have made an ultimate comeback in the clash against Delhi Capitals.
The situation is quite nervy. You can see that emotion on Richa Ghosh’s face. She’s on her knees, praying to every god she has known in her lifetime.
Up against her is Jess Jonassen, Meg Lanning’s trusted assassin.
Ghosh had to do something more than just special. The cameras keep panning towards her. It has been close to 30 seconds, and she’s still on her knees, praying.
It is already a herculean task for Ghosh.
Jonassen is a trained assassin. She has bowled just over 48 twentieth over in her lifetime, where she has only conceded runs at 8.5 and has picked up a massive 40 wickets. 26.2% of her deliveries in the 20th over are dot-balls.
Put yourself in that shoe. Just for a second. A 20-year-old vs the experience of Jonassen. The more you think of it, the more it goes against Ghosh.
First ball, it is the experienced Jonassen who screws her plans. 48 overs of experience behind her, but still, it was a 20-year-old who absolutely smacked the screws out of that. Ghosh was laser-focused.
11 runs off 5 balls
Jonassen knew that she couldn’t err. She realises that she can’t afford to give any sort of room to the 20-year-old. Course correction at its best. The left-arm spinner jams the ball outside off-stump from over the wicket, denying her any room, and all Ghosh could do is find the fielder.
11 runs off 4 balls
Ghosh is tired. She is on her knees. She can’t run, but she wants to keep going. Disha Kasat wants her to keep going, and her captain, Smriti Mandhana, wants her to keep going.
But the 20-year-old chips one towards the long-off fielder. That was Jonassen’s experience now getting on the nerves of the youngster.
The more you look at the final over, the more it feels like an exhibition on the art of staying in the game.
There’s a lot of confusion out in the middle.
Did they cross over? Did a tired Ghosh get to the other side? That was the question, and a whole minute and a half later, the third umpire confirmed they had crossed over. The 20-year-old from Siliguri will take strike.
10 runs off 3 balls
Richa is struggling. She’s down on her knees yet again. She can’t get any sort of power on that shot, and the bowler knows that.
Mentally, Jonassen is winning the battle. She’s worn Ghosh out by bowling the tough lines and lengths. But cricket takes only one ball to turn things around.
The left-arm spinner darts one on the pads, and a tired Ghosh could only get a double. Absolutely zapped. There’s no energy. There’s no way there can be a pause in the game now.
8 runs off 2 balls
A big boundary on the leg-side, Jonassen turning the ball away, and the task just got taller. Nothing short of a boundary could really keep RCB in the clash.
Ghosh knows that. She has to somehow, against all odds, get a six. She has to clear the bigger boundary. She has to conquer the best death-over spinner and the best captain in world cricket, Meg Lanning.
AND SHE DOES! Boom!
The ball goes a long mile; she connects the bones out of that one. It flies. RCB’s dressing room is absolutely buzzed. They know that a win is within touching distance.
2 runs off 1 ball
A long conference is now convened.
Someone who is known to be the calmest of all individuals in women’s cricket, Lanning, has called for the conference. There is Jonassen, who is standing like a good pupil waiting to hear from her master.
Lanning might be the calmest of all leaders, but with two runs needed from one ball, she may not be the calmest. The crowd just begin to go bonkers in the background. Delhi are playing at home, but the crowd is cheering “RCB, RCB, RCB”.
Everything is against Jonassen now. She has to put everything against her. She has to start it all fresh.
So, she goes to a place that she trusts the most, away from Ghosh’s swing. The 20-year-old can’t get a good connection on the ball and gets too good a connection to reach the non-striker’s end.
Jonassen collects her conscience and keeps her calm. She takes off the bail at the non-striker’s end and then throws a direct hit at the striker’s end as well.
Marizanne Kapp might have said that the left-arm spinner isn’t looking at the stumps; the 31-year-old knew exactly how to light them up, and she has been doing it for ages now.
ONE RUN.
Delhi Capitals won by one run. It is with the same margin that they lost two nights ago against the UP Warriorz. They know how it is to be on the losing side of things. They know how heartbreaks are.
10:47 PM, eight minutes or so after the first ball of the last over, Delhi are jubilant. They are jumping for joy, but there’s the cameraman has cut to this frame, showing the two RCB batters - Shreyanka Patil and Ghosh - down on their haunches, crying.
The frame is dejection. It is heartbreaking. It will make you cry. And then, cut, there is Jemimah Rodrigues and Lanning, who have walked up to console a broken Ghosh. They know that no words can heal her soul at the moment.
Shikha Pandey now walks up to Ghosh and consoles her. The entire DC team feels bad that her efforts didn’t result in a win.
It is almost a little past 10:50 PM normally, and WPL games are done and dusted by now, but there is a final reaction from Ghosh: she gets herself out of her slumber, gets up and has a go at her pad.
The bat is doing the damage, but it's a bit too late now. On the night, Ghosh scored 51 off 29 balls, but that one run is what remains.
She knows it could have been a glorious night. She knows that the world is just at her feet. But alas, the world is too big to be conquered, at least on Sunday (March 10).
“She’s (Richa) crying, I felt for her. Such a situation might come in the World Cup, and she can win India the game. It is more of a learning than a failure for Richa. Under pressure, she batted brilliantly,” Jemimah Rodrigues couldn’t have summed up things any better.
Perhaps, one day, it will all work out for Ghosh. Maybe her efforts will result in a glorious maiden World Cup win for India.
Until then, hope......
