If batting is an art, the WPL 2026 final at BCA Stadium in Vadodara was filled with Picassos. The match started with Lizelle Lee’s impactful knock and ended with Smriti Mandhana and Georgia Voll’s blitzkreig that helped Royal Challengers Bengaluru beat Delhi Capitals in the summit clash to lift their second title in three years. The duo stitched a phenomenal partnership of 165 runs to get the job done as the Jemimah Rodrigues-led side had a very difficult outing with the ball, resulting in their fourth straight final loss.
In the first innings, when Lee departed, Jemimah took over the business, hitting 57 runs off 37 balls. She set the momentum for the middle order batters as Laura Wolvaardt and Chinelle Henry capitalised on that, building a 55-run partnership. The South Africa captain hit 44 runs off 25 balls, while Henry went berserk, scoring an unbeaten 35 runs off 15 balls. Courtesy of their incredible batting, Delhi posted 203 runs in the first innings, which, after the first innings, looked enough.
However, Smriti and Voll had other ideas. Their carnage changed the complexion of the game in the second innings. Grace Harris departed early, scoring nine runs as Bengaluru were struggling for a while in the powerplay, but once they found momentum, they became impossible to stop. None of Delhi’s plans worked in the middle as the bowlers struggled to find any sort of momentum.
Voll eventually departed after scoring 79 runs, while Smriti kept up with the momentum. She went to score 87 runs before Henry helped DC script a late comeback. Nadine de Klerk and Radha Yadav, in the end, got the job done after Richa Ghosh departed for six runs. Soon after hitting the winning runs, the RCB players marched to the ground in celebration, while DC players were heartbroken and rightfully so.
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