Richa Ghosh almost pulls of an improbale spectacle as she unleashed a clinic of peerless and powerful ball-striking.
“Sir, 15 kam tha.”
That was Richa Ghosh, who on Monday night put Royal Challengers Bengaluru within 15 runs of an unlikely victory over Mumbai Indians with an almost unbelievable 50-ball 90.
In the fifth over of RCB’s 200 chase, Ghosh came in to bat with the scorecard showing 31 for 4. That quickly turned into 35 for 5, at which time there were other issues besides their chase.
In order to keep RCB at the top of the WPL points table, there were overs to survive, damage to limit, and net run-rate to protect in case they were unlucky in the race to the playoffs. For example, if RCB lost against UP Warriorz and Delhi Capitals won both of their remaining games, a 10-point tie would result.
However, Ghosh found that the pain of missing 15 runs outweighed the joy of making a spectacular knock.
Although it may have appeared academic to need 59 off 12, hopes flickered when Ghosh hammered Amanjot Kaur for three consecutive sixes. With full tosses and yorker-length deliveries, Ghosh’s powerful bottom-hand was on full display. RCB needed 32 off six balls after the over had cost 27 by the time Shreyanka Patil finished with consecutive fours.
Rather of starting Shreyanka at No. 10, could RCB have advanced her? Maybe. However, Rangarajan clarified that the goal was to give themselves the best opportunity to close the gap without exacerbating the harm to their net run-rate given their current situation.
Ghosh was beaten while trying to loft inside-out over cover after starting the last over by bludgeoning Amelia Kerr to the long-off fence for four, reducing the equation to 28 off five. Before Kerr sealed Mumbai’s victory with the penultimate delivery, the next two balls were smashed for two sixes. Ghosh had smashed an amazing ten fours and six sixes as she left.
“To get us to 15 shy of the target was a herculean effort,” Rangarajan said. “On her day, she can do absolute magic and can sometimes massacre any sort of bowling. As we’ve always been speaking about at RCB, we want to put pressure back on the opposition.
“It was nice to see when they had to defend about 52 [59] in the last two overs, they felt the pressure. That tells us enough about Richa the player. To score four sixes back-to-back is good for her confidence also. She’s had good, impactful innings, scoring 90 odd was very important for her, so I’m very happy for her.”