At the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai, Gujarat Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore face off in a game where once again, the batters reign supreme. Gujarat managed to set a formidable target of 201/7 in the first innings, and Bangalore wasted no time in making a quick start to their innings, scoring 33 runs in the first three overs.
Although Smriti Mandhana was on 16 runs, a chance to run her out was given to the opposition, but a mistake in the field resulted in her survival. During the fourth over of the innings, Ashleigh Gardner delivered a looping ball that spun away from the left-handed batter, who was facing the fourth ball of the over. The deceptive flight of the delivery caused Mandhana to be fooled, and she made contact with the outside edge of the bat.
As a result, the ball flew towards the backward point, where it was caught. This unfortunate turn of events for India’s star batter was due to Gardner’s skillful bowling. The ball’s edge fell a little distance away from the fielder positioned within the 30-yard circle. Despite this fortunate outcome, there was a miscommunication between the two batters occupying the crease. Mandhana, in particular, was having difficulty reaching the non-striker’s end.
Taking advantage of the situation, Gardner retrieved the ball after it was thrown to her by the non-striker’s end fielder, presenting her with a chance to execute a run-out on the struggling batter. Despite the advantageous situation, Gardner was positioned too far away from the stumps to hit them in time and prevent the batter from reaching the crease after receiving the fielder’s throw.
Consequently, the team missed an easy opportunity to secure a run-out dismissal on the ace batter. However, the bowler ultimately prevented Mandhana from capitalizing on her survival and dismissed her after two overs, when she had scored 18 runs.
