Sobhana Asha becomes the first Indian player to take a five-wicket haul in the Women Premier League.
New Delhi: Sobhana Asha picked up an astonishing fifer as Smriti Mandhana’s Royal Challengers Bangalore picked up a thrilling 2-run win over Alyssa Healy’s UP Warriorz in match 2 of the ongoing edition of the Women’s Premier League at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, on February 24. Asha also received the Player of the match for his splendid bowling performance.
RCB’s skipper expressed her thoughts on the thrilling game and credited Asha for the big win over Warriorz. She said her fifer was the game-changing moment and helped them pick up their first home-ground victory of the season. Asha also became the first Indian player to take a fifer in WPL.
FIVE Wickets. 22 Runs
Incredible spell from Asha Sobhana
Match Centre https://t.co/kIBDr0FhM4#TATAWPL | #RCBvUPW pic.twitter.com/snsIqK1Tcb
— Women’s Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) February 24, 2024
“Pretty nice game. Even the last match was really close. The same equation came up on the board. I was praying to all the gods and I was at cover, was just praying and the bowlers did an amazing job today. Was having a lot of faith on Sophie and the way she bowled the last over was brilliant and Asha getting 5 wickets was game-changing,” said Mandhana in the post-match ceremony.
“Whenever I saw her, I saw the look in her eyes which said give me the ball. It’s just her second WPL season but she is experienced domestically and good to see her perform well. At the second timeout we thought we will go past 165 which I thought was a good total. Richa and Meghana the way they batted without contributions from me, Sophie, and Perry was great,” she added.
UPW won the toss and elected to bowl first. However, despite some early blows, RCB bounced back with the help of Sabbhineni Meghana and Richa Ghosh’s half-centuries. RCB put 157 runs on board and later managed to restrict Warriorz to 155 runs with the help of Sobhana Asha’s fifer in an extremely thrilling chase.