Mumbai Indians Secure Victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore in WPL 2024 Encounter
In the Women’s Premier League 2024, Mumbai Indians showcased their dominance with a seven-wicket triumph over Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Ellyse Perry scored an undefeated 44, while RCB could only produce 131 for 6.
Mumbai Indians defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore 131 for 6 (Perry 44*, Wareham 27, Vastrakar 2-14, Sciver-Brunt 2-27) by seven wickets with 133 for 3 (Kerr 40*, Bhatia 31, Patil 1-15).
Despite missing two of its key players, Shabnim Ismail and Harmanpreet Kaur, the Mumbai Indians defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by seven wickets, demonstrating the attributes that make them a formidable team in the Women’s Premier League.
After a quiet start to the competition, Saika Ishaque returned to the wickets, and stand-in captain Nat Sciver-Brunt made her mark on the field with both the ball and the bat. Ismail’s replacement, Issy Wong, set the tone early with the new ball. Pooja Vastrakar, an important all-rounder for India, also left her mark with the ball during the middle phase. Due to all of these factors, Mumbai easily defeated the RCB total of 131, even though Ellyse Perry, who was back in the XI, scored an undefeated 44 off of just 38 balls.
Mumbai achieved this feat by topping the WPL 2024 points table and going undefeated in run chases during the campaign.
In WPL 2024, batting first has not always been easy for teams. Nevertheless, RCB is one of just two clubs to triumph while keeping a lead. However, they failed to get off to a good start on Saturday and lost Smriti Mandhana and S Meghana in the first five overs. Which brought Perry to the crease; he had been sick for the preceding three days. She took a while to get going, scoring just three runs off her first nine balls on a surface that was slightly brown.
In the tenth over, legspinner SB Keerthana produced a ball that was somewhat short, which enabled her to hit her first boundary—a pull through square leg. Actually, she scored five fours on deliveries that were either short or on a length. As the innings wore on, it became more and more apparent that the sickness had sapped her energies.
Sciver-Brunt, the interim captain of Mumbai, rotated her bowlers so that no bowler bowled an over after the other. Perry was also hampered by the fact that they seldom made mistakes in lines and lengths.
Perry only received a little assistance from Georgia Wareham, as the two shared a 52-run sixth-wicket stand that helped RCB to a decent total. Only Meghana and Sophie Molineux reached double figures aside from them, as the RCB concluded their innings without hitting a single six.
Bhatia and Matthews are fast move forward
Hayley Matthews and Yastika Bhatia got off to a start that would allay any concerns about how difficult the 132-run chase would be. With 431 partnership runs throughout four fifty-plus stands, they rank among the WPL’s most prolific couples. They also got off to a commanding start.
Bhatia struck the first ball she faced down the ground, and Matthews, from Renuka Singh’s first over, played a short-arm jab past midwicket with her first ball. Mumbai were hunting in fourth gear when Molineux’s left-arm spin was met with a six and a four from Bhatia.
In the third over of the innings, Renuka also went the entire distance in her second over. Matthews capitalized on the width for two fours and then on an overpitched one. In between, Bhatia hit a six off one of the most exquisite pick-up strokes over midwicket.
With Mumbai 37 for 0 in three when Sophie Devine was brought on, she hit on the seventh ball. Before Bhatia could obtain a heavy outside edge that was snagged by a diving Richa Ghosh to her left, she blasted consecutive fours. After hitting a six off of Wareham’s legspin, Matthews was bowled out for a 21-ball 26 by Shreyanka Patil. By that time, Mumbai had cut 69 off their objective.
Kerr continued to bat at No. 4 in Harmanpreet’s absence, and he was an ideal counterbalance for Sciver-Brunt. She started off by hitting Simran Bahadur, a medium pacer, with a couple of strokes.
While the second was a back-foot clip between deep square leg and deep midwicket, the first was a perfectly timed flick past midwicket. In addition, she enjoyed Patil and Asha Sobhana’s spin while Sciver-Brunt continued to pile up runs. For the third wicket, Kerr and Sciver-Brunt combined for 49 runs off of just 35 runs.
Kerr, who was unbeaten on 40 off 24 and put Mumbai through, finished with a strike rate of 166.66 despite not playing the flashy scoops and reverse sweeps.
