VADODARA: Gautami Naik struck a fine half-century to steer Royal Challengers Bengaluru to a 61-run win over Gujarat Giants and ensure a top-three finish in the Women’s Premier League here on Monday. Unbeaten so far, RCB registered their fifth straight win in the tournament and became the first team to book a knock-out berth. Sent in to bat, table-toppers RCB didn’t have the best of starts, losing Grace Harris and Georgia Voll inside the second over with the scoreboard reading just nine before Naik held the innings together to take RCB to a respectable 178 for six. Chasing, GG never got their acts together from the word go, losing four wickets for 34 by the seventh over. Beth Mooney, Sophie Devine, Anushka Sharma and Kanika Ahuja departed early. Kshvee Gautam and Georgia Wareham too didn’t help their side’s cause. Skipper Ashleigh Gardner (54 off 43 balls) and Bharti Fulmali (14) tried to resurrect their innings but failed. Gardner struck five boundaries and one six during her knock but it was not enough as GG finished at 117 for 8. Right-arm medium pacer Sayali Satghare continued her fine form and turned out to be the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3/21. She was ably supported by Nadine de Klerk (2/17). Earlier, skipper Smriti Mandhana (26 off 23 balls) and Naik then joined hands and stitched together 60 runs for the third wicket to stabilise RCB’s innings. The partnership was cut short by Ashleigh Gardner, who caught Mandhana plumb in front of the wicket following a successful review. Naik (73 off 55 balls, 7x4s, 1×6) and Richa Ghosh (27 off 20 balls) then stitched 69 runs for the fourth wicket to take RCB forward. While Naik was the dominant player in the partnership, Ghosh used her long handle to great effect and smashed three sixes to compile 27 runs off 20 balls. Naik’s run finally came to an end in the 18th over, castled by Gardner. Radha Yadav (17 off 8 balls) played short little cameo towards the end to propel RCB to the total.
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