WPL 2024
Kerr hit an unbeaten 40 to guide MI’s easy chase. © BCCI
Mumbai Indians hammered Royal Challengers Bangalore by seven wickets at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium to bring up their third victory of the season. They are now on the top of the points table with six points from four games. RCB, on the other hand, suffered their second consecutive loss and their third in three WPL games to the same opposition.
Match in a nutshell
RCB were kept to a pretty modest total of 131/6 on what was admittedly a tacky pitch and if not for Perry’s 44*, the score would have been even lower. But once the innings turned over, the pitch settled nicely like it does at the Chinnaswamy Stadium and allowed Amelia Kerr-powered MI to bulldoze to the target in the 16th over.
A wobbly start for RCB…
Having been put in to bat first in a tournament that’s favoured the chasing side so far, it was important for captain Smriti Mandhana to stick around but instead, she holed out to a false shot in Issy Wong’s first over. Nat Sciver-Brunt, the stand-in captain in the absence of Harmanpreet Kaur who once again missed a game, then got rid of Sabbhineni Meghana and Saika Ishaque trapped Sophie Devine LBW as RCB finished their powerplay at 34/3.
The Perry-Wareham recovery
The scoreline soon became 71/5, thanks to Pooja Vastrakar’s double strike that sent Richa Ghosh and Sophie Molineux packing. But Ellyse Perry, who Mandhana revealed later wasn’t 100 percent on the night, scored unbeaten 44 off 38, which twinned with Georgia Wareham’s 20-ball 27 to lead a recovery in the middle overs. Sciver-Brunt finally accounted for Wareham but RCB would rue not scoring more runs in the final four overs, which only yielded 25.
MI’s power-packed start and finish
Even though MI lost Yastika Bhatia in the fourth over but her 15-ball 31 ensured that the side won the powerplay in a modest chase and get a pretty big headstart in a small chase. Sciver-Brunt scored 27 off 25 but it was Kerr’s unbeaten 40 off 24 that really put RCB under pressure. Kerr hit 7 boundaries and ensured that the chase was done with 4.5 overs to spare.
Brief Scores: RCB 131/6 (Perry 44*; Vastrakar 2-14, Sciver-Brunt 2-27) lost to MI 133/3 in 15.1 overs (Kerr 40*; Devine 1-16) by 7 wickets
© cricbuzz
