Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) faced their first defeat of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2026 on Saturday, January 24. After five straight victories, RCB Women lost their match against Delhi Capitals (DC) by seven wickets. The Smriti Mandhana-led team was heavily dominated by the new captaincy of Jemimah Rodrigues and Player of the Match Marizanne Kapp’s all-rounder performance. With the win, DC Women takes the second spot in the points table while RCB remains as the table toppers.
RCB Women’s batting line-up suffered in the first innings, going all-out in 109. Openers Grace Harris (9 off 13) and Smriti Mandhana’s 38 runs off 34 balls made a decent start to the contest, followed by Georgia Voll and Radha Yadav adding 29 runs together. Meanwhile, RCB lost early wickets of Gautami Naik (3 off 7), Richa Ghosh (5 off 9), Nadine de Klerk (5 off 9), Arundhati Reddy (2 off 5), Sayali Satghare (3 off 5), and Shreyanka Patil (7 off 7), all failed to produce runs.
DC Women’s dominant bowling succeeded in making a powerful impact against the top team. Three wickets came from Nandni Sharma, two each were picked by Chinelle Henry, Marizanne Kapp and Minnu Mani, while N Sree Charani secured one.
After a strong bowling set-up, DC Women made a successful run chase. Shafali Verma (16 off 8) and Lizelle Lee (6 off 8) opened the second innings with decent runs, with skipper Rodrigues adding 24 runs off 26 balls. But the highlight of the match was Laura Wolvaardt, who went unbeaten at 42 runs off 38 balls. Alongside her was Kapp, who was not out at 19 off 15.
Sayali and Radha were the lone wicket-takers of the RCB Women’s team with others struggling to bring in wickets. While Sayali picked up two, Radha claimed one. DC Women, however, finished the run chase at 15.4 overs with a score of 111/3.
Rodrigues on learning from the past
DC Women’s captain Rodrigues, during the post-match interview, discussed the team’s comeback and individual efforts in producing a win against a top team like RCB.
Rodrigues said, “Credit to the team. It kept believing and executing plans. We were under pressure when Smriti was batting, a good catch. Minnu was excellent, Kapp was Kapp. We just kept talking about attacking the stumps. Today speaks a lot about the character. Champion teams know how to pick themselves back up. Not gotten white hair so far, really enjoying captaincy.”
Rectifying her past mistake, the skipper also revealed the decision to bring in Kapp into the gameplay this time, who was a key player in the team’s victory over RCB Women.
“Giving myself space to make mistakes. Last time we played RCB I held Kapp back, didn’t do that today. That was the learning,” she added.
