RCB Suffers Third Consecutive Loss in WPL 2025 as Gujarat Giants Shine

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The Royal Challengers Bengaluru's wait for their first home win of the season continues as they suffered their third consecutive loss in the Women's Premier League (WPL) 2025. The Gujarat Giants, led by Ashleigh Gardner, condemned RCB to another defeat, with Gardner's all-round performance being the key factor in the team's victory. RCB's poor performance with the bat saw them crash to their third straight defeat, despite having kickstarted the new season with two wins.

Chasing a modest total of 126, the Giants made a watchful start, with Renuka Singh finding some swing early on and D Hemalatha managing to find some streaky runs. However, Gardner walked out with intent, creaming her first ball for a boundary, and took full toll on the bowling change, welcoming Prema Rawat to the bowling attack with 4,4,4,6 to stun the bowling side. The fact that Ghosh dropped an outside edge in the 13th over didn't help matters either, as Phoebe Litchfield made that reprieve count by collecting a couple of boundaries immediately. Any hopes of a miracle at the death were quickly put to bed when Gardner smashed back-to-back sixes off Georgia Wareham to bring up her fifty in style.

RCB endured a horrid powerplay after being asked to bat first, with Danielle Wyatt-Hodge being trapped leg-before-wicket and Ellyse Perry hitting one short ball straight to square leg to gift Gardner a wicket in her first over. The pressure got to Smriti Mandhana as she was struggling to get going, and she fell when she tried to break free, finding the fielder at deep midwicket. At 26/3 after the powerplay, RCB were in desperate need of a partnership to revive themselves, but the stand between Raghvi Bist and Kanika Ahuja was broken as Bist failed to capitalise on Gardner dropping a dolly, attempting an unnecessary single immediately after the dropped chance, only to get run out.

The match scores were as follows:

• Royal Challengers Bengaluru: 125/7 in 20 overs (Kanika Ahuja 33; Tanuja Kanwar 2/16, Deandra Dottin 2/31)
• Gujarat Giants: 126/4 in 16.3 overs (Ashleigh Gardner 58, Phoebe Litchfield 30*; Renuka Singh 2/24)

RCB's innings floundered real quick thereafter, with Ahuja departing in the following over, and the home side literally managing to find the boundary just once in the final overs to finish with 125 - a total that was never going to challenge a team that won with 21 balls to spare. The bowling performance of the Gujarat Giants was impressive, with Gardner and Deandra Dottin taking two wickets each. The fielding of the team was also commendable, with some stunning catches being taken throughout the match.

The loss was a disappointing one for RCB, who are still searching for their first home win of the season. The team's coach, Malolan Rangarajan, admitted that the Gujarat Giants were the better side, and that RCB was completely outplayed. He also felt that the conditions at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium were unpredictable, with the wicket being slightly slower than expected. However, he didn't think that the matches at the Bengaluru ground depend on the toss, and instead believed that the team that plays better cricket will win.

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