Out of contention following successive defeats at home, UP Warriorz had nothing to lose and they played without any care to knock out defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru from the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2025 with a 12-run win in Match 18 at the Ekana Stadium here on Saturday. The highest aggregate total of 438 runs in a WPL game ended in both the sides getting knocked out and confirming the teams that qualify to the playoffs – Delhi Capitals, Gujarat Giants, Mumbai Indians.

UP Warriorz’s victory helped them finish their campaign with eight points and also secured playoff spots for Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Giants with matches to spare.

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In a brilliant display of power-hitting, Georgia Voll scored a sensational unbeaten 99 off 56 balls while the other batted around here as UP Warriorz blasted 225/5 in 20 overs for the highest-ever total in Women’s Premier League (WPL) history.

RCB set off in the biggest ever chase of 226 runs in right earnest and nearly made a match of it thanks to stunning knocks by Richa Ghosh, who blazed to 69 off 33 balls, hitting six fours and five sixes, and Sneh Rana, who hammered a six-ball 26, in a brutal display of power-hitting.

But Richa first fell with RCB crossing 170 for the loss of five wickets, having rescued them from 80/4. Sneh Rana then got into the act and hammered Deepti Sharma for 28 runs in the penultimate over, which included a no-ball, hitting her India teammate 4,6,6,4+nb and 6 before she was caught in the deep, going for another big hit. From 43 from 12 balls, her heroics took RCB to 15 needed from six. But Renuka Singh was out off the third ball off Voll’s over as RCB fell short by 12 runs.

The defending champions had started well and reached 70/2 at the end of the playoffs despite losing skipper Smriti Mandhana early. Richa then took charge of the proceedings as she played some brilliant shots all around the ground, using the short boundaries to her advantage. She struck some big sixes, five in all but her dismissal dealt a big blow to RCB’s hopes.

For UP Warriorz, Sophie Ecclestone and Deepti Sharma claimed three wickets each for 25 and 50 runs respectively as they chipped at the RCB batting to claim regular wickets, succumbing to scoreboard pressure.

Earlier, UP Warriorz, who were playing to end their campaign with a win, made the most of the innocuous RCB bowling to blast a massive score, overtaking Delhi Capitals’ 223/5 in 20 overs scored against RCB in 2023.

Voll played a brilliant knock, hammering 17 boundaries and one six at a superb strike rate of 176.78 to propel UP Warriorz. She was unlucky to miss a well-deserved maiden century, failing to get two runs off the last ball. She ended up at 99 not out, the joint-highest ever individual score in WPL history, equalling Sophie Devine’s score. She raised 77 runs with Grace Harris for the opening wicket, 71 for the second wicket with Navgire, and 43 for the third wicket with Chinelle Henry.

Asked to bat first, UP Warriorz seems to have discovered their mojo as they made a blistering start with Grace Harris and Voll raising 67 runs in six overs, posting the highest score in the power-play this season.

Harris despatched the first two deliveries of the match from Kim Garth for boundaries and then blasted Renuka Singh for a straight six. A hat-trick of fours off Garth, including a scoop past short fine leg, in the third over and two more boundaries — a thump through the point and drive through deep square and deep midwicket — later she is out the only way she can be, run out while going for a non-existent single. She scored 39 off 22 and UP were 77/1 in the eighth over.

Georgia Voll waded into Renuka Singh at the other end, hitting her for three boundaries in four balls in the fourth over. She slog-swept Charlie Dean for a six off her first delivery in WPL and followed that up with two fours for 14 runs in her first over.

The RCB bowlers bowled short and wide while skipper Mandhana brought the spinners from the side of shortest boundaries and the UPW batters made merry at their cost.

Kiran Navgire was equally brutal in her approach as she hammered 46 off 16 balls, hitting a half-tracker from Ellyse Perry for a six before striking Georgia Wareham for back-to-back sixes in the 10th over. She blasted Renuka Singh two fours and two sixes in a 22-run over before holing out to Perry at long-on off Wareham, missing out on the fastest fifty in the WPL. She hit two boundaries and five maximums during her brief cameo.

Voll went on to complete her fifty off 31 balls, her knock studded with nine fours and one six. Chinelle Henry struck 19 off 15 balls and the RCB bowlers pulled things back a bit as Voll missed her century as UP Warriorz lost two wickets in a dramatic final over, including a run out off Deepti Sharma on the final ball, as Voll was left stranded on 99.

Brief scores:

UP Warriorz 225/5 in 20 overs (Georgia Voll 99 not out, Kiran Navgirer 46, Grace Harris 39; Georgia Wareham 2-43) beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru 213 all out in19.3 overs (Richa Ghosh 69, Ellyse Perry 28, Sneh Rana 26; Sophie Ecclestone 3-25, Deepti Sharma 3-50, Chinelle Henry 2-39) by 12 runs.