Renuka Thakur produced a brilliant, match-winning bowling performance against the Gujarat Giants in RCB’s second match of the WPL 2024 season. RCB won by 8 wickets at their home ground, Chinnaswamy stadium, and Thakur was named the Player of the Match.
A new ball specialist, Renuka Thakur was in superb rhythm last evening and bowled four overs on a trot, returning with figures of 2/14. She took the wickets of two important top-order batters, Beth Mooney and Phoebe Litchfield.
Renuka bowled Mooney, the veteran Australian opener, with an amazing inswinging delivery.
Coming around the wicket to the left-handed Mooney, Renuka Thakur sent down a swinging length delivery outside the off-stump. The ball moved in further with her angle. Mooney looked to play an off-drive, but with the ball seaming in further, she missed it.
The ball went through the small gap between the batter’s pad and bat and crashed into the off-stump, which was knocked over and lay flat on the ground. Renuka celebrated it animatedly with wicket-keeper Richa Ghosh.
WPL 2024: Watch- Renuka Thakur Knocks Beth Mooney’s Off-Stump
๐ฃ๏ธ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ง๐ก๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐๐๐ ๐๐ฉ๐จ, ๐ฌ๐๐ก๐ก ๐๐๐ฃ๐ช๐ ๐ ๐๐จ ๐๐๐ง๐! ๐
She delivers an absolute beauty to dismiss #GG's skipper ๐ฎโ๐จ#RCBvGG #TATAWPLonJioCinema #TATAWPLonSports18 #HarZubaanParNaamTera#JioCinemaSports #CheerTheW pic.twitter.com/OhbIhYQhKm
— JioCinema (@JioCinema) February 27, 2024
She would later scalp another big wicket of Phoebe Litchfield, another Aussie star, who got out stumped with Richa doing a quick word with the gloves.
After Renuka’s heroics with the new ball, Australian left-arm spinner Sophie Molineux got into the act and snared three late wickets to completely deflate Giants’ innings. Gujarat could manage to post only 107 runs, which RCB chased down comfortably. Captain Smriti Mandhana scored 43 runs in 27 balls. Sabbhineni Meghana scored 36 off 28 and Ellyse Perry smashed 23 off 14 balls to give RCB a big win.
Since RCB chased down the target in 12.3 overs, their NRR shot up significantly over Mumbai Indians, who also have two wins in two games.
Renuka Singh Thakur, the Player of the Match said, “I’m very happy, it’s been a long time since I have bowled a good spell, especially after the injury. One of my best spells this. It feels good because I have worked hard a lot and I’m happy the results are showing. [on her round the wicket strategy] I have worked on this a lot, I spoke to my coach Troy [Cooley] after the India series, who asked me to work on this.”
