The Royal Challengers Bengaluru complete yet another victory to go unbeaten in their Navi Mumbai leg and look like a side that’s improving with each passing game of cricket they play. Read our analyses here.
🏏 Shafali’s innings was that of a batter who knew her game inside out
Shafali Verma’s knock tonight showed maturity beyond her years and was reminiscent of her innings in the World Cup final. It’s a sign of how far her game has come and how well she knows it.
Delhi Capitals got off to the worst possible start. Four wickets inside the first nine deliveries of the innings. Lizelle Lee, Laura Wolvaardt, Jemimah Rodrigues, and Marizanne Kapp were all sent packing, thanks to excellent seam and swing bowling from Lauren Bell and Sayali Satghare.
All this unfolded in nine balls as Shafali watched from the non-striker’s end—helpless, clueless. At the end of the second over, Delhi Capitals found themselves at 10 for 4, the least number of runs for which four wickets had ever fallen in WPL history.
For Shafali, however, this was an opportunity. A chance to play another innings of substance and possibly drag her team out of a dire situation. It was the perfect platform for Shafali 2.0—a version where she’s more calculated and plays her power game smarter.
It wasn’t easy to get going. Lauren Bell produced deliveries that swung, seamed, and bounced, beating Shafali from time to time. But credit where it’s due—Shafali stayed in and rotated strike.
RCB also missed a trick with their matchups against Verma. While it was natural to continue bowling Bell and Satghare, their effectiveness reduced as the ball started doing less off the pitch.
If you look at Shafali’s matchups against various bowling types, it would have been ideal for RCB to introduce leg-spinner Prema Rawat. Against leg-spin, Shafali has a sub-20 average and a sub-120 strike rate since 2023—her weakest matchup by far.
Instead, RCB went with off-spinner Shreyanka Patil, against whom Shafali is deadly, striking at 164. She’s also prone to dismissal against off-spin, averaging just 22, and Patil almost got her as Shafali survived a stumping chance.
From there, RCB missed another trick by bringing on medium-pacer Nadine de Klerk instead of bowling spin from both ends, especially since Verma was the main threat in the middle. Verma strikes at 145, and with an average of 37 against this bowling type, it was always going to be a more comfortable matchup for her.
The fact of the matter, however, is also that when RCB did bowl leg-spinner Prema Rawat, Shafali was barely on strike. She faced just four deliveries from the leg-break bowler and negotiated them safely, taking on everyone else and backing her strengths.
This was evident in Shafali playing a majority of her big strokes in the batting V. A strength of hers against pace is the ability to hit straight down the ground. Against spin, she expands her hitting region from square leg all the way to cover. That’s exactly what she did today, scoring 50 runs in the region from wide long-on to cover point.
It was a classy knock that helped rebuild Delhi’s innings to respectability. It was also the knock of a batter who was incredibly aware of her game, knew her strengths and weaknesses, and managed them brilliantly to get valuable runs for her side.
Data from Women’s T20 Batting App using Himanish Ganjoo’s T20 cricket BBB database up until October 2025, Arnav Jain’s fielding toolkit, Cricmetric, Cricket By JB’s WPL analyses & the Broadcast.
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