Gujarat Giants Women vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru Women, 1st Match - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Catches win matches. The age-old adage continues to prove its value and relevance, especially in the womens game where the rate of dropped catches is fairly high compared to that of mens. Gujarat Giants finished bottom in the previous 2 seasons and a win tonight would have done them a world of good. Not to be. That said, RCB have sent a sharp reminder that they are the defending champions and you need to be at your very best to beat them in all departments. They lost a few quality players due to injuries, but the team made sure their absence wasn't felt. Result? They sealed the highest successful chase in the history of WPL. Still early days though and the tournament is only gonna get better and better from here. Locking horns tomorrow will be Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Capitals. Do remember to catch all the action from WPL's thrill-a-minute ride. That is all from us for today. Cheers!!

Richa Ghosh | Player of the Match: The plan was to take time and take it deep, I just tried to focus on my natural game. We always were positive and had the belief to chase this target. The preparation was really helpful because we had these kind of targets and those situations really helped us. The plan was just see ball and hit ball.

Smriti Mandhana: Really happy to be on the winning side. The way Richa batted, it was brilliant to watch in the end. They have been doing that in the nets to all our bowlers and we always thought we were in the game after the first innings because of the dew. We had a good auction and whoever came in for the injured, thought they were all good replacements.

Kanika Ahuja: I am feeling very happy. Whatever I learned during my rehad and practice sessions, tried to execute in the middle today. I was trying to visualise how I want to play my shots and it came off thankfully. We knew that if we can take it deep, we can win the game and all credits go to my team-mates.

Ash Gardner: It is pretty flattening to be honest, we knew it was a par score at the halfway stage and we dropped some chances and it hurt us in the end. There are always gonna be positives, there were some really good glimpses with the ball as well but when you miss those chances it can hurt you, Richa made sure she got her team over the line with a brilliant knock . We know it is gonna get very dewy and it was very tricky to hold the ball in the end, but we are not gonna use that as an excuse for the loss. We were in a very good position to win that game, and unfortunately it wasn't to be. We want to keep playing fearless cricket with both bat and ball and remain positive and the rest hopefully takes care of itself.

Stats by Shashikant Singh

Highest target successfully chased in the WPL
202 - RCB vs GG, Vadodara, 2025*
191 - MI vs GG, Delhi, 2024
189 - RCB vs GG, Brabourne, 2023
179 - UPW vs GG, Brabourne, 2023
172 - MI vs DC, Bengaluru, 2024

Highest run rate in a 50+ run partnership in the WPL
16.8 (70 off 25) - Ecclestone & GM Harris (UPW) vs GG, 2023
15.08 (93* off 37) - KS Ahuja & RM Ghosh (RCB) vs GG, 2025*
14.93 (107 of 43) - MM Lanning & Shafali Verma (DC) vs GG, 2023
14.68 (93 off 38) - H Kaur & AC Kerr (MI) vs GG, 2024

Highest match aggregates in the WPL
403 - GG sv RCB, Vadodara, 2025*
391 - GG vs RCB, Brabourne, 2023
386 - RCB vs DC, Brabourne, 2023
381 - GG vs MI, Delhi, 2024
380 - DC vs UPW, DY Patil, 2023

Four individuals with 50+ scores in a WPL match
GG vs UPW, Brabourne, 2023
GG vs RCB, Vadodara, 2025*

- 93* runs partnership between Kanika Ahujaa and Richa Ghosh is the 3rd highest for RCB in WPL.

* 16 sixes in this match is the second-most hit in a WPL match after 19 sixes hit in the RCBvs DC match at Bengaluru in 2024.

22:56 local, 17:26 GMT, 22:56 IST: Take nothing away from the brilliance of some of shots, but when you drop players like Perry and Richa this is what can happen. After posting a mammoth 201 on the board, Gujarat Giants got off to the best possible start with the ball. Skipper Gardner removed the opening duo of Smriti and Danni Wyatt-Hodge in the space of 5 balls in the second over, but what followed was a disastrous turn of events in the field. Dropped catches, misfield, missed run-out chance, overthrows and high full tosses. Things just went from bad to worse for the home team. Perry was dropped (tough chance) on 2 in the 4th over, then a missed run-out chance in the 6th over, Perry dropped again on 18 (straightforward catch), Richa Ghosh dropped on 0 in the 12th over....and in-between those dropped chances there were terrible misfields. And to rub salt into the wounds, both Perry and Richa compiled fifties to help their side register an improbable win. While Perry's fifty set the base, Richa's fifty shut the door for the home side as she smashed 7 fours and 4 sixes during her 27-ball 64. All in all, the win should give RCB a massive confidence going into the rest of the season...

Dottin to Richa Ghosh, SIX, that is it. Defending champions RCB kickstart their campaign with a win. Richa mauls the short of a length delivery into the mid-wicket orbit and completes the highest successful chase in the history of WPL. RCB win by 6 wickets...

Dottin to Richa Ghosh, no run, short and wide of off, Richa mistimes the slog to the right of the bowler

Dottin to Kanika Ahuja, 1 run, full toss outside off, Ahuja advances and slaps the drive to the right of extra cover

Just a couple of hits away now....

Fastest fifties in the WPL (by balls)
18 - Sophia Dunkley (GG) vs RCB, 2023
19 - Shafali Verma (DC) vs GG, 2023
20 - Sophie Devine (RCB) vs GG, 2023
22 - Harmanpreet Kaur (MI) vs GG, 2023
23 - Richa Ghosh (RCB) vs GG, today*

Priya Mishra to Richa Ghosh, SIX, slower and fuller from Priya Mishra, Richa gets under it and launches it straight back over the bowler's head. It hung in the air for a long time and teased the fielder at long-on to her left

Priya Mishra to Richa Ghosh, 2 runs, full on the stumps, Richa gets a thick inside edge on the sweep that races past the diving fielder at short fine to her left