Dunkley, Deol give Giants first win and hand RCB third loss

The expectations from Royal Challengers Bangalore, even before the Women's Premier League began, were high. They had the most expensive player of the league in captain Smriti Mandhana, and a formidable squad.

But within the first week of the WPL, they find themselves at the bottom of the points table as the only team without a win. The expectations are becoming pressure.

On Wednesday, in a clash between two teams yet to register a win, it was Gujarat Giants who broke their duck at the Brabourne Stadium, beating Royal Challengers by 11 runs, a margin that doesn't really tell the full story.

Powered by Sophia Dunkley's record 18-ball fifty at the top and held together by Harleen Deol's 67 off 45, Giants put together 201 for 7 as Royal Challengers' bowling continued to struggle for the third game on the trot.

In their first match of the season, Delhi Capitals carted them for 223 for 2 and in their second, Mumbai Indians chased down 156 with more than five overs to spare, both at the batters paradise that Brabourne has proved to be.

The third game was no different. Consider this: Megan Schutt, Australia's frontline pacer, started with a maiden and an opening spell of 2-1-13-1. Yet she bowled only three overs at an economy of 8.66. It's indicative of how nothing seems to be going Royal Challengers' way.

The star of the show was undoubtedly Dunkley, who scored the tournament's fastest fifty so far. The England batter was not the team's first-choice opener and came in to replace the injured captain Beth Mooney in the previous game. On Wednesday, she ensured she would be hard to drop even after Mooney's replacement, Laura Wolvaardt, flies in.

Runs kept flowing from Dunkley's bat on a ground with one boundary behind square as short as 47 metres. She reached her fifty in the fifth over, with 22 of her runs coming off just one over from left-arm spinner Preeti Bose.

It could have been much worse for Royal Challengers but for offspin allrounder Shreyanka Patil, the local talent who is turning out to be one of the bright spots of their campaign. She dismissed the dangerous Dunkley after being hit for a massive six and a four; the batter walked back with her bat behind her head knowing she had missed a chance to make a big one.

At the other end, Deol put in yet another good shift for Giants after her 46 off 32 against UP Warriorz in a match her side lost in a last-over thriller. On Wednesday, she brought up her fifty off 35 balls and kept exploiting the gaps for boundaries and even clobbering Ellyse Perry for three fours in a row at one point, which is sure to give her a confidence boost.

It was Patil again, who got the set batter, returning figures of 2 for 32 from her four overs and earning high praise from Sophie Devine, who said she is sure to be playing for India soon.

Mandhana kept rotating her bowlers to not a lot of success, and like against Delhi, it was part-timer Heather Knight who was among the wickets. But nothing could prevent Giants from breaching the 200-run mark.

Royal Challengers started their chase fairly well but their innings soon took a familiar turn: a team of proven performers not clicking together.

In conditions fairly good for batting, Devine slammed 66 off 45 but didn't get much support from other batters.

The biggest blow perhaps was Mandhana failing to build on a promising start yet again, falling into the trap against an offspinner yet again: her third in three matches this WPL. Ashleigh Gardner has dismissed Mandhana more often than anyone else in international cricket and she got her once again.

Devine built a partnership with Perry and then Richa Ghosh, keeping the team alive. But frequent dot balls meant the required rate kept soaring. In the 17th over, a ball after smashing Annabel Sutherland for a six, Devine hit one straight to long-on, ending Royal Challengers' last remnants of hope.

Knight's 11-ball 30 and Patil's 11 off 4 at the death only reduced the margin of the defeat.

"Our batting unit ebbed and flowed and there was a time where we faced too many dot balls, 10 or 12 and dot balls are really crucial," Devine said after the match. "I think every team is realising that to bowl on these wickets… they are batters paradise to be fair. There is no seam, there is no swing, quick outfield. It's a real test as a bowling unit and I don't think any team has been able to crack it yet. This is an area we improved on but we can get a lot more disciplined in terms of execution."

Three matches in, Royal Challengers are entering a must-win zone now. In a five-team tournament, they need to be in the top three to make the knockouts. They have five matches left to do that, with a star-studded team that can easily 'win the cup this year' if they click together.