Sophia Dunkley on Wednesday belted the fastest fifty of the inaugural Women’s Premier League 2023. The Gujarat Giants batter raced away to the milestone in just 18 deliveries as she unleashed a flurry of boundaries in the over of Royal Challengers Bangalore bowler Preeti Bose in the Powerplay.
After captain Sneh Rana opted to bat first at the Brabourne Stadium, Gujarat Giants lost opener Sabbhineni Meghana cheaply on eight who failed to capitalise on a dropped catch when she was yet to open her account. On the other hand, Dunkley got off the mark with a scoop off Ellyse Perry for a four which was also her team’s first runs after eight dot balls in a row.
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Dunkley then belted a couple of fours off Megan Schutt who sort of had some revenge when she sent back Meghana on 8 after conceding a boundary to the batter in the same over.
However, the 24-year-old Dunkley was in red-hot touch as she clattered two fours and a six in the following over, bowled by Renuka Thakur. And then she creamed 22 runs in off Bose during which she also raised her maiden half-century of WPL.
GGT finished their Powerplay with 64/1 and Dunkley had scored 54 of them.
The England batter eventually was dismissed for 65 off 28 after holing out to Heather Knight off Shreyanka Patil. Her entertaining innings featured 11 fours and three sixes.
Both GGT and RCB are searching their first win of the tournament having lost two matches each.
GGT suffered a 143-run thrashing at the hands of Mumbai Indians and also lost their captain Beth Mooney to an injury and in her absence, Sneh Rana has taken over the role.
“It’s a used pitch. Want to bat freely with our batting depth. The environment was very positive – the kind of cricket we played,” Rana said during the coin toss.
Gujarat Giants XI: Sabbhineni Meghana, Sophia Dunkley, Harleen Deol, Annabel Sutherland, Sushma Verma (wk), Ashleigh Gardner, Dayalan Hemalatha, Sneh Rana (captain), Kim Garth, Mansi Joshi, Tanuja Kanwar
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