The great thing about WPL is, if you really love the game, you can watch the best players in the world play EVERY SINGLE NIGHT!
Cricket heaven
After settling into our luxurious hotel in Bangalore, we wasted no time and headed straight to Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday night as guests of ACT Cricket and the Karnataka district.
We caught the local team, RCB, going head-to-head with their fierce rivals, the Mumbai Indians. Ellyse Perry from RCB put on an incredible performance with her highest WPL score of 81; she’s a superstar here in Bangalore, and the RCB crowd chat of “Perry Perfect.”
When the Mumbai Indians took their turn to bat, they relied heavily on Harmanpreet Kaur and the power hitting of Amanjot Kaur and 16 year old G. Kamalini helped them clinch the win with five overs to spare.
Even the most die-hard Mumbai fan would have to admit it was a tough match. The stadium atmosphere was something else, with a unique whistle that we’re still trying to figure out—it’s a fun challenge that Russian and I have taken on.
On Saturday, we took a trip over to the shopping at Central Street; Lisa Knightley guided us through some street shopping and introduced us to this quirky little café called Subko that’s become a favourite for the international players. They are well known in Mumbai and are growing their business all around India. Plus the coffee reminded us both of home! Check out our Instagram to see how they stir their coffee!
I also tackled an ATM for the first time and learned the hard way about the differences between commercial ATMs and bank-owned , especially regarding transfer fees. Some of the commercial ATMs wouldn’t even accept our cards, which was super frustrating, especially when we didn’t have enough cash to pay for the auto (tuk-tuk as we call them back home) ride.
In the afternoon, we headed back to the hotel to gear up for our second trip to Chinnaswamy Stadium, where we were excited to see our adopted team, the UP Warriorz, take on the Delhi Capitals. It was only a few days earlier, they had lost to Delhi at BCA Stadium, so we were hoping for a turnaround. Plus we had another of our ATW team, Erica who is an expert here in India.
We had a feeling it would be a nail-biter, and once again, we scored great seats in the GP WarriorZ corporate hospitality area. The UP WarriorZ didn’t let us down. They stumbled early, finding themselves at 6 for 92, but then West Indian powerhouse Chinelle Henry stepped up. She was smashing the ball out of the park, making it look easy. With her strength, field placement was irrelevant as the ball sailed over the fence numerous times. One even registered 93 metres… That performance equalled the fastest 50 in WPL history and helped the UP WarriorZ set a solid total of 176.
The Capitals started their chase slowly due to tight bowling from the Warriors.
However, the Warriors made things tough for themselves by dropping catches in the first few overs. But as the bowling unit found their rhythm, they began to take those catches, and soon the Capitals were in a tough spot, needing over 70 runs with just 40 balls left.
Aussie player Grace Harris then took the spotlight, grabbing a hat-trick to wrap up the Delhi innings, giving the Warriors their first win. The celebrations were fantastic! They have this cool tradition where they bring out a cake to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, and, of course, victories by their WPL Team. Again check out our Instagram and Facebook account to see those amazing videos.
A day off in between to allow the Indian fans to take in the India vs Pakistan match in Champions trophy enabled us to look around a little more. That blog coming to you shortly. Though last night we witness the first ever Super Over of the WPL.
Great match last night between top of the table Royal Challengers Bengaluru & UP Warrioz. Sophie Ecclestone hits 6, 6, 4 & 1 in the last over with a run out on the last ball to tie the match. She than bowls the over for UPW (who scored 7 runs in their Super over) & only conceded 4 runs to win the match.
Hence why on return to the hotel, the cake celebration was had again, with the players being a little more respectful or scared, (you decide hahaha) cake was placed all over her face. Still haven’t gotten my head around the reasons for this.
The stadium was packed yet again & the noise deafening through the match. Attending any match in at M.Chinnaswamy stadium in which RCB play is an experience in itself. We were a small crowd of yellow but we created plenty of noise. No voices left after a match like that.
Again the the TV coverage featured us quite frequently to the point at breakfast some chap said to us “I saw you on TV again last night”. It is hilarious 🏏😂
