Nadine de Klerk puts up an unstoppable show against UP Warriorz
It was another clinical bowling performance from the Royal Challengers as they secured the final berth with an emphatic win against UP Warriorz. Nadine de Klerk led the show with a scintillating display of control and a masterclass of trickery that forced the Warriorz into a corner.
The Warriorz got off to a solid start as Meg Lanning and Deepti Sharma were ruthless. Despite Lauren Bell being economical the other RCB bowlers found it challenging to break free. And with the kind of runs that were leaked by RCB in the last two games, the déjà vu was ominous enough for the fans.
It was in the ninth over that Smriti Mandhana decided to bring de Klerk into the attack. And like a messiah, she stepped up, dropping a fuller ball outside the off-pole and Lanning miscued it straight into the hands of Radha Yadav. Up next in her prolonged line of victims, it was Amy Jones who couldn’t slip from the line of fire and the ball crashed onto her pads as she was struggling in front of the wickets.
De Klerk has carved a name for herself in terms of being a specialist. Whether it is about claiming wickets or bowling in the death, the South African all-rounder has been in great shape off late. When introduced in the final over once again with the idea of keeping the Warriorz in check, she took up the assignment and dispensed that with clinical distinction.
Sophie Ecclestone was gone first ball when de Klerk gunned it fuller on middle and leg and there was hardly any flinching from the English cricketer. Klerk wasn’t done yet and the last one to fall off her bowling was Simran Shaikh who tried to get a few crucial runs at the end. Arundhati Reddy was all set and she claimed a comfortable catch to give Nadine de Klerk the Purple Cap for now.
With 15 wickets in her tally, de Klerk continues to dominate proceedings and she will be hopeful of delivering one final masterclass when RCB gear up for the summit clash. De Klerk said after the innings, “Planning has been good. Trying to protect that short boundary (by bowling slow and wide) and bowling at the stumps (with the bigger boundary).”
