Mumbai Indians returned to the top of the table with a dominating seven-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2024 on Saturday (March 2). Chasing a modest 132, Mumbai openers Yastika Bhatia and Hayley Mathews made small work of the chase, adding 45 runs in just four overs and setting the tone. All the Mumbai batters kept the tempo up and the team eventually won the match in 16 overs.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Apart from Bhatia (31 off 15 balls), Mathews scored 26 off 21, Nat Sciver-Brunt contributed 27 and Amelia Kerr chipped in with unbeaten 40 off 24 balls. RCB were never in the contention despite sending back Bhatia inside the powerplay and Mathews shortly after on a team score of 69.
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With 64 runs needed, Sciver-Brunt and Kerr added 49 runs for the third wicket before Georgia Wareham struck to break the partnership. Kerr then added the remaining runs with Pooja Vastrakar to take the team home.
Earlier, MI won the toss and sent RCB to bat first. Mumbai, led by Sciver-Brunt in absence of Hamranpreet Kaur, struck early and brought RCB down at 33/3 inside the powerplay. Bangalore could never recover from the situation even with Wareham and Ellyse Perry’s 52-run partnership for the sixth wicket. For RCB, Perry top scored with unbeaten 44 while Wareham chipped in with 27 off 20 balls.
Speaking to the broadcasters after the match, RCB skipper Smriti Mandhana said: “Batting first, we have seen it is holding a little bit. We could not adjust to the pitch. We went in with the same flow. Something to learn from, hopefully we come back very soon. In terms of bowling, we need to bowl at the stumps a lot more. We have to bring the stumps in play – that is what we did in the first two games.”
RCB next play on March 4 (Monday) against UP Warriorz.
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