De Klerk, Harris power RCB into WPL final with dominant win over UP Warriorz

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) secured their place in the championship match by easily defeating the UP Warriorz by eight wickets on Thursday.

This result put RCB at the top of the league standings with 12 points while effectively ending the tournament for the Warriorz, who remain at the bottom of the table. Although the Warriorz started their innings quickly, they couldn’t maintain their momentum and finished with a total of 143 runs.

The shift in momentum happened because of a strong bowling performance led by Nadine de Klerk and Grace Harris. After UPW openers Deepti Sharma and Meg Lanning put together a solid 72-run partnership, De Klerk broke the stand by taking two quick wickets.

Harris then added to the pressure by dismissing two more middle-order batters. This caused the Warriorz to collapse from a comfortable position to a struggling score, as they lost several key players in a short amount of time.

When it was time to chase the target, Grace Harris dominated the game with her batting. She teamed up with captain Smriti Mandhana to put on a massive 108-run partnership, with both players reaching half-centuries. Harris was particularly aggressive, hitting 15 boundaries in total and reaching her fifty in just 28 balls. By the time she was finally out, the game was nearly over, allowing RCB to cruise to victory with more than six overs to spare.