There is a case to be made that the Royal Challengers Bengaluru are not quite getting their combinations right at the start of the Women’s Premier League season, but what they do have are elite match-winners who can single-handedly take the game away from the opponents. On Monday in Navi Mumbai, it was Grace Harris’ turn to produce a stunning innings that powered RCB past UP Warriorz’s total of 143 with nearly eight overs to spare.
Grace and Power
That Harris is one of the most powerful ball-strikers in the world is well established, but over the course of her 40-ball 85, she also showed how good her timing can be when she is in the zone. When Meg Lanning decided to open the bowling with Deepti Sharma, most likely as a match-up option to Smriti Mandhana, Harris took strike and calmly struck a straight drive off the first ball, swinging through the line effortlessly for a four. When Deepti shortened the length, she was ready to rock back in the crease and find the gap behind square on the offside. In the fourth over, when Kranti Gaud dropped short, she caressed the ball through point and short-arm jabbed through square leg for a couple more elegant boundaries.
Make no mistake, there was plenty of power on display too. The run-chase was effectively broken in the sixth over as she smashed Deandra Dottin for 32 runs, with the third six in the over bringing up a 22-ball half-century. Mandhana, who hit a serene 32-ball 47 with nine fours herself, quipping later that if she were the opponent captain with Harris in this form, she’d have not known what to do either. “It was the best seat in the house to watch Grace,” Mandhana said after the match. “All I need to do is take a single. Amazing to watch. She can bat in the middle-order as well as she does for Australia. But we all were very clear of how dangerous she can be at the top, and how she can take the game away from the opposition,” the RCB skipper said, on the decision to make her open the batting.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Grace Harris ;plays a shot RCB’s Women’s Premier League (WPL) match against UP Warriorz at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. (Express photo by Narendra Vaskar)
Indeed, with the grace of Mandhana and power of Harris, RCB have an opening pair that the other four teams would fear, especially on flat wickets when dew sets in. “When Malo bhai (coach Malolan) told me I will open, I just thought, oh, how good. I get to bat with Smriti. She’s so classy and just calm. It’s a great reminder when you watch her bat that you don’t actually even have to over-hit the ball. She makes batting look so easy, so smooth and technically correct,” Harris said in mutual admiration.
Bell sets the tone
For the second match running, Lauren Bell delivered a new ball spell that saw the opponents’ opener struggle to put bat on ball. On opening night, it was Amelia Kerr who kept getting beaten outside off-stump because of the late swing she was extracting. Against UPW, she troubled both Meg Lanning and Harleen Deol; the latter was stunned by an away swinger that landed onthe middle stump and almost turned like a leg-break to beat the outside edge. The English pacer bowled 13 dot balls in the three overs she bowled in the powerplay, and accounted for the wicket of Deol, whose frustration at not being able to connect with the ball led to a desperate hoick.
Shreyanka’s mixed night
One of the reasons Shreyanka Patil was successful in WPL was her knack for dismissing the top batters in the opposition ranks. Back playing in the league after missing out in 2025 due to injury, the spinner showed she still has that ability in her as she accounted for Lanning and Phoebe Litchfield in one over to break the back of UPW’s batting order. She’d concede that later that it was a mixed night for her, as she went for 50 runs in an otherwise miserly bowling effort by RCB. Her lines and lengths were thrown off at the death by Deandra Dottin and Deepti, who led UPW’s recovery from 50/5 to 143/5, and Shreyanka spoke in the mid-innings break about not getting her execution right. She is no stranger to bowling at the death, and if she can rectify those mistakes, a wicket-taking Shreyanka will once again be an asset for RCB.
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Brief scores: UP Warriorz 143/5 (Deepti Sharma 45; Nadine de Klerk 2/28, Shreyanka Patil 2/50) lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru 145/1 (Grace Harris 85; Shikha Pandey 1/28) by 9 wickets.
