The Royal Challengers Bengaluru get back to winning ways at a crucial juncture, securing their place in the WPL final. Read our analysis below!
❎ Nadine de Klerk’s cross-seam magic!
Today isn’t as much an analysis as it is a peek into an interesting skill—the cross-seam delivery.
Nadine de Klerk, the latest holder of the purple cap, came into bowl during the 9th over of the game, when UPW were ahead. They were cruising comfortably with an opening partnership of 74 between captain Meg Lanning and another new partner for her in Deepti Sharma.
In the lead-up to this game, de Klerk had already turned up with key wickets in the tournament and crucial junctures. Before tonight, de Klerk had picked up 11 wickets across 24 overs in the tournament, with a brilliant strike rate of 13 and a good economy rate of 7.5 RPO. So to some, it was a bit surprising that she came on when she did, given not only her effectiveness but also the lack of swing upfront for Bell & Satghare.
With the very first ball of her spell, however, she struck with the wicket of Meg Lanning. A cross-seam delivery slightly misfired, fullish length outside offstump, seemed to move slightly outward in the air, and Lanning sliced it, getting caught on the offside.
Shortly after, in the very same over, de Klerk bowled yet another cross-seamer, this time at the stumps and nipping back into Amy Jones, who was only playing her first game of the competition. Out LBW.
Later on, towards the end of the innings as well, de Klerk fired in yet another cross-seaming delivery, this time it almost seemed to speed up and zip a bit after pitching to wrap Sophie Ecclestone on the pads for yet another LBW.
The common link among all dismissals? The cross-seamer. It is a very interesting weapon of choice that de Klerk employs, also particularly because of how she seems to release this delivery and the different ways in which it interacts with conditions.
The cross-seamer can move in the air at times, and depending on how the ball lands, that is, on the seam or partially on the seam or on the leather, it behaves accordingly. It can not only lead to movement but also varying levels of bounce.
What is something to note is that de Klerk seems to get more from this cross-seam than many others, which means that she’s a great exponent of knowing exactly how to use it to her advantage and possibly even nip it back intentionally. But above all, she’s bowled the right lines & lengths to turn any kind of deviation into a wicket ball.
Eventually, de Klerk ended with figures of 4 for 22 off her 4 overs, a brilliant display of attacking bowling on a day where some of RCB’s strike bowlers looked a bit defensive. She’s also now picked up the most wickets for RCB in a single season of the WPL!
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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