In the Women’s Premier League, Mumbai Indians, captained by Harmanpreet Kaur, have won their second consecutive match. In the fourth match of the tournament, Mumbai defeated RCB by a margin of nine wickets. This is RCB’s second consecutive defeat and Smriti Mandhana’s team could be in trouble now.
In this match, RCB won the toss and batting first scored 155 runs in 18.4 overs. Richa Ghosh made the highest score of 28 runs. Hayley Mathews took three wickets for Mumbai. In response, Mumbai scored 159 runs losing one wicket in 14.2 overs and won the match. Hayley Mathews also did wonders with the bat and scored 77 not out. Nat Sciver played an unbeaten inning of 55 runs.
Smriti Mandhana, electing to bat first after winning the toss, got RCB off to a brisk start along with Sophie Devine (16). With the batting of both, it seemed that RCB was going to do something big, but Saika Ishaque first had Devine caught off a sweep and two balls later, bowled Disha Kasat, to bring Mumbai back. The drama was yet to come. In the next over, Hayley Mathews dismissed Mandhana (23) and Heather Knight in two consecutive balls to reduce RCB’s score to 43 for four. RCB lost four wickets inside eight balls. They scored 47 runs for four wickets in the powerplay.
Australian all-rounder Ellyse Perry (13) combined with Richa Ghosh to take the score to 71, but here Perry was unfortunately run out in a poor misunderstanding . Richa had a reprieve when she was appeared to be caught behind but was given not out and on the review , the snicko did not pick any edge . After this Kanika Ahuja of Patiala not only scored 22 runs in 13 balls but also brought the score to 105 with Richa. Here she was dismissed by Pooja Vastrakar. Kanika hit a six and three fours and showed good promise .
All the hopes of RCB rested on Richa Ghosh. She had scored 28 runs with the help of one six and three fours, but here Hayley Mathews got her caught by Nat Sciver at the boundary as soon as she came on the attack. After seven wickets fell for 112 runs in 13.3 overs, RCB’s innings seemed to be shrinking soon, but Shreyanka Patil took RCB to a respectable score by hitting four fours. She added 34 runs with Megan Shutt (20). Shreyanka got out after scoring 23 runs in 14 balls.
Chasing 156, the pair of Yastika Bhatia and Healy Mathews got Mumbai off to a flying start. Both added 45 runs for the first wicket briskly . Yastika Bhatia was dismissed for 23 off 19 balls after playing some crisp shots , but Mathews remained grounded. She also completed her half-century in 26 balls and shared a half-century partnership with Nat Sciver to take Mumbai’s score past 100 runs at speed . Mumbai had scored 110 runs for one wicket in 11 overs and the victory of this team was decided here. After this, Sciver also completed her half-century in 28 balls and confirmed Mumbai’s victory.
Healy Mathews and Nat Shiver shared a century partnership for the second wicket to win the match for Mumbai. Mathews scored a blistering unbeaten 77 off 38 balls with the help of 13 fours and a six whereas Nat Shiver scored a brisk unbeaten 55 in 29 balls with the help of nine fours and a six. Priti Bose took the only wicket for Bangalore.
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RCB bowlers were ineffective in this match. From Renuka to Megan Schutt and Ellyse Perry, runs were fiercely leaked . RCB bowlers had no answer against the pair of Mathews and Sciver. Apart from this, RCB bowlers wasted a lot of runs by bowling directionless and they lack quality spin options. To make a comeback in the coming times, RCB will have to improve their batting, bowling and fielding a lot. They probably now need to play Dane Van Neikerk , who is a quality spin all rounder for South Africa and drop a batter .