MATCH STORIES
Follow UsIt’s the final night of the Women’s Premier League (WPL). The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) are being pulverised into submission by a 20-year-old who also happens to be one of the best straight hitters in modern women’s cricket. On the other end is the MEGastar, who would cut you into a hundred pieces before you can even bleed to death.
The score? 61/0 at the end of six overs.
Shafali Verma batting at 42(21)*, and Meg Lanning just letting her younger partner do the damage while scoring a calming 17(15)* herself.
The next over, bowled by the leg spinner Georgia Wareham, goes for only three runs. In comes Sophie Molineux, who had picked up nine scalps while giving 28.6 runs/wicket on average, with an economy of 7.6.
Considering the fact that she played five of those nine games in Bengaluru, where there isn’t much help for spinners, these are overall decent numbers. However, once you consider that she averaged 23.2 at the Chinnaswamy and 39.7 at the Kotla (before the final), you might be perplexed by the counterintuitive nature of these records.
Clearly, the change in venues had affected her rhythm, as her accuracy was affected, and she went for a lot of runs in the powerplay at the Kotla (66 in just eight overs) without picking up a wicket. Even today, she gave ten runs in the only over she bowled in the first six.
Smriti Mandhana had all her plans in place and was ready to go. She must have seen two right-handers on the crease and, hence, brought in a left-arm spinner in Molineux right after a leggie in Wareham, and thus began a carnage that ended only when Qila Kotla was breached by an army from Bengaluru.
First ball of the eight over.
Shafali chews up spinners like they are a delectable piece of paan and then spits them away after sucking them dry with an onslaught of boundaries. A strike rate of 148 against Molineux in T20s makes it even probable that Shafali will go after her straightway.
She did go after her. But Molineux isn’t someone who’ll just sit and let the batter thrash her. She had anticipated such a move from Shafali, who was batting at a strike rate nearing 200.
Molineux came from around the wicket and dangled a carrot in front of Shafali’s stick by tossing it up on middle and leg. Shafali went for the slog sweep but ended up mistiming the ball as it gripped just a bit in the surface, and Wareham completed a very sensible catch.
Strike one. Check.
The second ball of the over was faced by Jemimah Rodrigues, who had a stellar season so far for the Capitals, sitting amongst the top ten batters of the season. But she played a dot.
On the third delivery, she tried something extra. Something that she wouldn’t have done in a ‘normal’ game.
She played a sweep. Molineux flighted up the ball quite a bit, and landed it in the line of the stumps on middle and off. The ball held just a tad bit in the surface, and Jemimah committed the cardinal sin of being too early in her sweep shot. The ball evaded her bat with ease and crashed into her stumps.
Three deliveries. That’s all it took for Molineux to get RCB roaring back into the game.
Her next wicket, which came on the fourth ball, was like a reward for her persistence on the stump line as a spinner.
Alice Capsey had probably decided what shot she’d play against Molineux while in the dugout.
She went for a premeditated scoop. The only thing that was scooped on that delivery was her stump, as she completely missed the line of the ball, and Molinuex just did target practice.
Variations in pace. Variations in trajectory. The discipline to bowl at the stumps and stay there despite the theatrics employed by the batter. Molineux did all that and much more. Such was the impact, that she got the Player of the Match in the WPL finals! The massive spike in RCB’s win % near the seventh over mark just proves what the naked eyes already suggested.
If Australian women weren’t a team of extraterrestrial highly evolved beings, the 26-year-old and double T20 World Cup winner Molineux would have played much more than the 27 T20Is she has for her national side.
But it didn’t matter. She had single-handedly not only allowed RCB to come back in the game, but with three wickets in the same over, also ensured that the Capitals were shocked enough not to make a rousing return in the game. If there was ever any chance left of that, Shreyanka Patil’s introduction in the attack put a lid over it.
She sent Lanning packing on the third delivery of her second over, just like she did the last time the two teams met in the league stages. The only change was the angle of attack.
Like she often does, Shreyanka landed it on a length and got the ball to turn sharply into the right-hander. You could see the immaculate 45-degree seam position on the ball, allowing it to turn sideways and bounce. Moreover, as Shreyanka bowls most of her deliveries in the 80-85 kmph range, Lanning hardly had any time to go on the back foot and execute the shot she had planned.
Plumb LBW.
The Capitals had lost their captain and their fourth wicket. Whatever chances still remained were further extinguished by Asha Sobhana’s double strike of Marizanne Kapp and Jess Jonassen. In her next two overs, Shreyanka cleaned up DC’s lower order.
It’s one thing to perform at the best of your ability in a league stage game. However, to perform against teams in the knockouts is another ball game. She got helpful pitches in the Delhi leg and wreaked havoc on the opposition.
Despite all that skill and temperament, its the chutzpah of saying, "When the ball turns, I'm a different beast" to Ravi Shastri and Mel Jones that makes this 21-year-old stand out in a galaxy of stars.
Also read - Cometh the hour, cometh the superstar Shreyanka Patil
Shreyanka picked up four wickets in the final and two against Mumbai Indians in the eliminator. Apart from the three scalps in the same over, Molineux executed a direct hit to perfection to run out Radha Yadav.
That’s eight wickets between the two. For the Capitals, those were the eight big nails that sealed their coffin. The only thing that was left to do was lower the coffin into the pit and pour earth over it. RCB took their own sweet time doing it, taking 117 deliveries to chase 113.
However, that didn’t matter. The damage was already done. A scintillating spin show from Molineux and Shreyanka turned RCB towards the ultimate glory - their first-ever title victory!
