Virat Kohli joins Smriti Mandhana and team in celebrations after WPL 2024 Victory

Former India and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli wasn’t one to be left behind as he joined the women’s team in celebrating their title triumph in the second edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) in New Delhi on Sunday.

RCB, led by Smriti Mandhana, beat the Delhi Capitals (DC) by eight wickets at the Arun Jaitley Stadium to be crowned the WPL champions. The win ended the franchise’s trophyless run, with the men’s team having failed to win a single title since the inception of the tournament in 2008.

After restricting the Delhi Capitals to a modest 113, the RCB batters made sure they didn’t put a foot wrong and overhauled the target in 19.3 overs, losing only two wickets in the process.

Kohli, who landed in India just a day before the final, joined the celebrations as he made a video call to the RCB captain before the presentation ceremony. With the full-house at the Arun Jaitley Stadium going ballistic, it was hard for Mandhana to hear what Kohli had to say, but the duo exchanged wide smiles and thumbs ups.

Kohli then took to social media too to share his happiness and shared a graphic of the title-winning RCB team and captioned it ‘Superwomen’ on Instagram with a heart and a trophy emoticon.

Spinners orchestrate RCB’s win

RCB’s spinners Shreyanka Patil (4/12) and Sophie Molineux (3/20) were the stars of the evening as they engineered a spectacular DC collapse in the middle overs to put RCB in the driver’s seat.

Meg Lanning and Shafali Verma came out all guns blazing as Renuka Singh Thakur and Ellyse Perry were taken to the cleaners. Molineux first applied the brakes on the Delhi team when she accounted for Verma for 44 with the score reading 64/1 in 7.1 overs.

What followed was absolute mayhem as the Delhi Capitals lost their way, losing Jemimah Rodrigues and Alice Capsey for no score in the next four balls.

When Lanning and Marizanne Kapp fell in the middle overs, the Delhi Capitals were staring down a barrel at 80/5 in the 14th over.

Patil then spun a web around the DC batters as they lost their last seven wickets for just 23 runs.

Chasing 114, Mandhana and Sophie Devine started on a cautious note as the pair added 49 runs in 8.1 overs. While Devine attacked the bowlers at will, Mandhana played second fiddle as RCB built their chase slowly and steadily.

The wicket slowed down a bit, and shot making was difficult on the night, but with just 113 on the board, the Delhi bowlers did not have enough to defend.

After both openers got back to the hut in the 15th over, Perry (35 off 27 balls) and Richa Ghosh (17 off 14 balls) made sure there were no stumbling blocks for RCB as they romped home with three balls to spare.