Bell, Mandhana help RCB sweep Navi Mumbai leg

The only real misstep Royal Challengers Bengaluru made all evening came not from their own doing but from a sensational piece of fielding by Lucy Hamilton, who flung herself into the path of destiny. What seemed certain to be the first century in WPL history instead became a tantalizing 96, but Smriti Mandhana's stroke-laden 61-ball masterpiece had already made short work of a 166-run target as RCB swept the Navi Mumbai leg of WPL 2026, moving to a perfect four from four.

Their eight-wicket dismantling of Delhi Capitals was clinical in every sense. If there had been any grumble from their opening trio of victories, it was that their skipper hadn't truly announced herself at the crease. Tonight, she emphatically struck that concern from the record with an innings of sublime strokeplay. Even after Grace Harris departed early, even as Georgia Voll struggled to find her rhythm, RCB barely felt the squeeze of the required rate because Mandhana kept caressing boundaries with an elegance that suggested she was barely trying.

Delhi lost their chance to derail the chase in just the second over when they declined to review an appeal after Mandhana missed a pull against Hamilton. Either side of that let-off, the RCB captain pierced the field with precision to set the scoreboard humming. Even with RCB managing a modest 37 in the PowerPlay, Mandhana never flinched. Right after the PowerPlay, she unwrapped a pair of boundaries against Sree Charani, then two more against Sneh Rana as she glided to a 31-ball half-century.

From there, she simply continued conducting her symphony of stroke-making. Voll eventually shook off her slumber to join the melody, and together they wove a 142-run partnership that rendered the chase almost ceremonial. When Mandhana finally fell, agonizingly short of her milestone, the equation had already been reduced to little more than arithmetic. RCB sauntered home with 10 balls to spare.

Before that clinical chase, however, came a bowling performance of ruthless efficiency, spearheaded once again by the excellent Lauren Bell, who should rank among the very finest signings of the season. Bell was pulled away for a boundary by Lizelle Lee before the South African was bowled around her legs by a full ball that seemed to have eyes. Two balls later, Bell conjured an inswinger that also jagged back viciously off the surface to breach Laura Wolvaardt's defenses and leave her stranded.

Stumps continued to cartwheel at both ends as Delhi Capitals, inserted into bat, suddenly found themselves staring at 10 for 4 - the lowest score at the fall of the fourth wicket in WPL history. Sayali Satghare needed only two deliveries to join the destruction, enticing DC captain Jemimah Rodrigues into dragging one onto her stumps. The RCB debutant then produced arguably the ball of the match when she angled her first delivery to Marizanne Kapp, drawing the South African into playing for the angle before the ball straightened just enough to kiss the off-stump.

Shafali Verma found her way out of that wreckage in the only way she knows, with furious aggression that saw the Capitals race to 60 by the end of the PowerPlay, 42 of them blazed from her blade. First she launched into full balls from Satghare, dispatching a pair of sixes over long-off that made her the first player in WPL history to reach 50 maximums in the competition. A 19-run assault on Shreyanka Patil to close the fielding restrictions gave DC hope that they might yet offset their nightmare start.

RCB struck back soon enough when leg-spinner Prema Rawat trapped Niki Prasad LBW on umpire's call. Nadine de Klerk then removed Minnu Mani in the next over as DC slumped to 74 for 6. None of it troubled Verma at the other end, who raced to a 27-ball half-century with the kind of inevitability that defines her best work. Sneh Rana hung around for a 34-run partnership before she too was cleaned up by Rawat. Bell returned to dismiss Verma for 62 at the start of the 17th over, and at that stage, DC appeared destined for a sub-150 total.

But against the run of play, WPL debutant Hamilton conjured a superb cameo, plundering 17 runs off another Shreyanka over to muscle DC well past 160. As it turned out, even that late flourish wasn't anywhere near enough.

Brief scores: Delhi Capitals 166 in 20 overs (Shafali Verma 62, Lucy Hamilton 36; Lauren Bell 3-26, Prema Rawat 2-16) lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru 169/2 in 18.2 overs (Smriti Mandhana 96, Georgia Voll 54*; Marizanne Kapp 1-21) by 8 wickets.