NEW DELHI: It was a cathartic moment. When Richa Ghosh hit the winning runs in the final, the entire fan base of Royal Challengers Bangalore must have felt a burden being lifted off their shoulders.
After all, the men’s team had tried hard for 16 long years to win the IPL, but could not.In between, there was the dash of the Champions League T20 tournament. RCB couldn’t win that either.
The girls in red and black, however, got the job done in the first final they played. Skipper Smriti Mandhana‘s eyes were moist, some other players too had tears rolling down their cheeks. It was indeed a big relief and the emotions expressed were strong. RCB’s performance was a much-improved show from last year, when they finished fourth.
Just like RCB going up a gear, the 2024 WPL also gave several eye-catching performances. The tournament was full of high-octane batting and close games, many of which went till the last over. Indian players have been at the forefront, both youngsters and internationals. Out of the top 10 run-getters in the tournament, six have been Indians. And out of the top 10 wicket-takers, five are Indians.
Analysing the 2024 WPL, Smriti told TOI, “I feel this year has been brilliant for Indian players. Last year, in the list of top-scorers there were a lot of overseas names, but this year the stats show that we (Indian players) have almost tripled in every department.
“That’s exactly what we want. WPL will be held every year, but what we get out of it will be really valuable. It was therefore great to see all the Indian players, youngsters as well as the internationals, to step up and play the way they did,” she added.
The tournament also saw Indians hitting big sixes. Harmanpreet Kaur and Shafali Verma were renowned to smack those big ones earlier, but others have upped the ante too. As a result, enhanced strike-rates were witnessed.
Shafali scored her runs at a breakneck speed, coming up with a strike-rate of 156.85. Jemimah Rodrigues too hit some big sixes, often clearing the boundary ropes by a good margin. Her strike-rate in the tournament was 153.59.
Kiran Navgire (146.66), Richa Ghosh (141.98), Harmanpreet Kaur (141.05) and Deepti Sharma (136.57) also returned with impressive strike-rates. Kaur, in fact, managed to pull off an improbable chase for Mumbai Indians against Gujarat Giants in the league stage. MI required 91 in the last six overs with the asking rate more than 15 runs per over, and Kaur blasted an unbeaten 95 off just 48 balls to fashion a memorable win.
“The fitness culture has changed, new techniques have come up, and with better facilities, we’re now seeing the results. All the investment over the last six years has seen us producing bigger hits, greater strike-rates and bowlers improving their pace,” Smriti said.
“We’ve improved a lot (in terms of hitting ability). There is Shafali, me, Pooja (Vastrakar), Amanjot (Kaur), we all practice power hitting, do range hitting during our training sessions and that’s resulted in better performance on the field. Our confidence levels have also increased a lot,” wicketkeeper-bat Richa Ghosh said.
The 2024 WPL also saw several last-over finishes, including in the final. Matches were won and lost in the final over, as most games went down the wire.
There were multiple matches where the result was decided off the final ball and the tournament was not for the faint-hearted. “Close games mean the competition has gotten better and the gap between teams as well as players has reduced by a considerable margin,” DC skipper Meg Lanning said.
