Their total could have been a lot more had DC not pulled things back through Nandani Sharma’s hat-trick after Devine’s demolition of the bowlers. DC, however, came agonisingly close, within seven runs of sealing the highest WPL chase. But Devine took the pace off the ball and the steam out of DC’s chase.

Devine came out all guns blazing and muscled the ball to all sides of the park as the DC bowlers failed to keep it outside her hitting arc. After a thick edge off her bat fell short of the keeper in the first over, Devine got going with a couple of fours in the next, off Chinelle Henry, and took off properly in the fourth by smashing Nandani for a 16-run over. The real damage came in the sixth over with the introduction of spin, when Devine smoked Sneh Rana for 32 in an over, which became the most expensive in WPL history.

After starting the over with two consecutive fours – the second nearly taken by a one-handed Marizanne Kapp at cover point – Devine bludgeoned Rana for four sixes, all on the leg side as the ball was aimed for the stumps again and again. By the time the over ended, Rana had lost her length so horribly that she bowled a full toss and Devine lapped it up for her fifth six, soon after her 25-ball fifty.

N Shree Charani and Henry managed to pull things back briefly by conceding just 15 off the next 14 balls and also sent back Beth Mooney, but there was no stopping Devine. She hammered another three sixes in four balls even as Charani took the pace off the ball and Devine raced into the 90s, looking set to become the first centurion of the tournament.

But Devine’s wait for a century continued; she had also scored 99 for Royal Challengers Bengaluru a couple of seasons ago. Nandani, who made her WPL debut on Saturday, sent down a back-of-the-hand variation which Devine top-edged behind the wicket and Charani, running back from short fine leg, hung on to a catch that nearly touched the sky before coming down. Charani got her second wicket when Rodrigues flung to her right at cover in the next over to send back Georgia Wareham and the promising Anushka Sharma soon holed out for 13.

Gardner then took charge after getting a life on 22, even as DC exposed GG’s inexperienced lower order, and peppered the boundary regularly. She went after both pace and spin alike before finding long-on to finish on a quick 49 off 26 before DC conceded just eight runs in the last two overs. GG suffered a collapse of 4 for 8 in the end with Nandani striking thrice in a row in the last over to take the fourth hat-trick and the first by an uncapped player in the WPL

Renuka Singh put down Lizelle Lee’s tough return catch on the second ball of the chase, and the DC opener showed how costly the drop was. She crashed the next ball through the covers and finished the over with a no-look six straight down the ground. She continued to pepper the boundary even as Shafali Verma struggled for rhythm. Though DC’s powerplay score read 47 for 1 compared to GG’s 80 for 0, Lee ensured they weren’t too far behind.

If Devine’s innings was about brute force, Lee combined her well-timed drives with the odd aerial shot to keep the run rate close to nine an over. She went 4, 4 and 6 against Wareham for her 33-ball fifty as Wolvaardt played second-fiddle with GG still needing 120 from the last 10. The equation became a lot stiffer when GG’s spinners conceded just 23 in the three overs after the halfway mark before Lee tore into Wareham again.

Wolvaardt was on 28 off 20 when Lee eventually found Devine at long-on for 86, which left DC to get 79 of 34. DC promoted the big-hitting Henry ahead of Jemimah Rodrigues and Kapp, but she also holed out after just one six. Rodrigues eventually walked out at No. 5 and crashed her first ball wide of long-on for a 17-run 16th over.

GG were still well ahead with the equation reading 60 off 24. Wolvaardt then used her long limbs to attack the spinners, especially going after Gardner in the 18th over when they needed 48 from 18. She often went straight down the ground when she had the length and otherwise found the gap square or through the covers to find the boundary regularly. After three fours and a six off Gardner, she dispatched Kashvee Gautam, who started the 19th over with two no-balls, for a six over midwicket which swung the game further for DC.

When Rodrigues ended the penultimate over by lofting Gautam over the covers, DC would have thought they had it in the bag with just seven to get from six. But Devine, who had earlier leaked 19 in two wicketless overs, first had Rodrigues glove one behind off a slower ball, kept Kapp to just one run off two balls, and then had Wolvaardt caught at deep midwicket with five to get off two. Rana walked out for the last ball and could’t even connect, and GG scraped through

Brief scores:
Gujarat Giants Women 209 in 20 overs (Beth Mooney 19, Sophie Devine 95, Ashleigh Gardner 49, Anushka Sharma 13, Kashvee Gautam 14; Chinelle Henry 2-43, Nandani Sharma 5-33, Shree Charani 2-42, Shafali Verma 1-21) beat Delhi Capitals Women  205 for 5 in 20 overs (Lizelle Lee 86, Shafali Verma 14, Laura Wolvaardt 77, Jemimah Rodrigues 15; Kashvee Gautam 1-48,  Sophie Devine 2-21, Rajeshwari Gayakwad 2-34) by four runs

[Cricinfo]

The first men’s international game at the Kotambi Stadium got the finish fans may have craved, but its tension had seemed inconceivable when Kohli was in the middle, putting on stands of 118 with Shubman Gill  and 77 with Iyer.

Kohli’s innings was one of both vintage and new-age rhythms. He was all intent at the start, stepping out to the seamers, prepared to go over the top, hitting six fours in his first 20 balls. Thereafter, he knew he was in charge, and dictated the tempo like a deep-lying midfield playmaker.

There was, for instance, the shot he played to go from 75 to 79. Having hit just one boundary in 55 balls (and not being any worse off for it), he manufactured one off Clarke with his expert manipulation of the middle-overs field restrictions, with only four fielders allowed outside the 30-yard circle. He took stance outside leg stump, telling the bowler anything on the line of the stumps would go over the off side, with no one on the boundary at deep cover or mid-off. Clarke followed Kohli with a ball at his hip, and he wristed it expertly to the unguarded backward-square-leg boundary.

Within sight of a century, however, Kohli fell, charging Jamieson and failing to find the elevation needed to clear mid-off. Jamieson then took out Jadeja and a set Iyer, who had batted authoritatively until then upon his return from injury, taking a heavy toll of legspinner Adithya Ashok. Both were soft dismissals, though both came off cross-seam deliveries that misbehaved just enough off this black-soil Vadodara surface to punish shots lacking neither defensive nor attacking conviction.

Then Rana, surviving a dropped chance from Daryl Mitchell  on the midwicket boundary, dominated a sixth-wicket stand of 37 with Rahul before falling with 22 needed off 22. With Washington only able to walk between wickets, India still managed a single nearly every ball, before Rahul applied that emphatic finish with nine needed off nine balls.

That India were in full control for much of their chase indicated two things: one, the lack of experience in New Zealand’s injury-ravaged attack, and two: the inadequacy of their total.