Royal Challengers Bangalore qualified for the Women’s Premier League 2024 play-offs after defeating Mumbai Indians by seven wickets. The Smriti Mandhana-led side came out at their best in front of 22,834 spectators at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday (March 12). In the must-win game, all-rounder Ellyse Perry stood tall with both bat (40 off 38) and ball (6/15).
Perry smashed a winning six as the crowd cheered ‘RCB…RCB…RCB’. Perry – ‘The Goat’ also flashed on the big screen as she impressed the crowd with her all-round perfection. Meanwhile, Richa Ghosh who got an early reprieve ended with 36 off 28 and stitched an impressive victory with Perry.
With the victory, RCB can now stop their calculations they have made it to the top three and will now play the eliminator with the second-placed team. On the other side, UP Warriorz and Gujarat Giants who would have hoped for RCB’s loss can draw curtains to the ongoing WPL season. Parallely, MI have also been denied a direct entry to the Final and will play an eliminator.
MI had an off day at the office as they were definitely out of the zone in the field – two dropped catches and 11 wides. Nat Sciver Brunt, one of the finest fielders for the Mumbai side dropped two easy sitters – one at mid-wicket and another at the cover point. Both the dropped catches left Shabnam Ismail in annoyance. Brunt gave life to Richa Ghosh in the ninth over while robbing MI off an early breakthrough in the third over itself where she dropped Sophie Molineux. However, in the next over (3.2), Matthews tempted Molineux to come forward and debutant Priyanka Bala made no mistake with stumping.
In the powerplay, MI were well in the game as they shocked RCB with two big blows. RCB skipper Mandhana’s average batting continued in Delhi. Ever since the WPL bandwagon shifted to Delhi, Mandhana struggled to make runs. She managed only 40 in the last three- 11 (13) vs Mumbai Indians, 5(7) vs Delhi Capitals and 24(16) vs Gujarat Giants.
However, regardless of the poor overall show, if one has to pick the delivery of the day, then it will surely be Ismail’s off cutter to Sophie Devine that dislodged her bails in the seventh over. Ismail, the leading wicket-taker for MI had put her best foot forward once again in the game but got no support in the field.
Clearly, 113 never proved to be enough to defend, especially with the shoddy fielding. Moreover, the day was all about Elysse Perry, who had not picked up a single wicket all season, produced the best-ever figures in the WPL and then showed up with the bat.
Earlier in the day, RCB won the toss and opted to field first on a fresh pitch. With Yastika Bhatia being absent, S Sajana, who batted largely in the lower middle order, took the opener’s role along with Hayley Matthews.
Sajana started off slow as Matthews took the attacker’s role with impressive fours and sixes. To extinguish the run-fire Mandhana tried four different bowlers in the powerplay but finally, Sophie Devine gave a much-needed breakthrough to RCB on the final ball of it. Matthews (26 off 23) raised her bat for a big one at deep square leg but Perry judged it right and took a perfect catch sliding forward. Mumbai went 43-1 at the end of six overs.
Sajana then got into attacking mode as Devine leaked 15 runs in the eighth over. MI had just started to pick up pace but Perry had some different plans for the day.
She flipped the game in the ninth over with two quick wickets in two balls. She bowled out Sajana (30 off 21) with a jaffa and then sent back MI’s leading run-scorer Harmanpreet (0 off 1) on the next one. Harman, who was terrific against Gujarat Giants in their last fixture, couldn’t read the ball well, got an inside edge and the ball rattled the stumps.
With MI 69/3 at the end of 10 overs, the crowd started hooting, ‘Perry…Perry…we want Perry’
Enter Perry.
On the first of the 11th over, Amelia Kerr got beaten by the ball, Perry appealed hard for LBW but the umpire said NO! Mandhana then immediately went for the review, ball tracking showed the ball hitting the middle of the leg stumps and Kerr (2 off 5) had to walk back. Pressure crept in for MI and Amanjot Kaur tried to reduce it with a four on the very next ball. Perry then breathed fire and castled Kaur (4 off 2) on the subsequent delivery.
Perry continued her magic as she timbered Pooja Vastrakar (6 off 10) and completed her fifer. Mandhana hugged Perry with a wide smile on her face and with that Mumbai seemed clueless.
MI fans had however still invested their hopes in Nat Sciver-Brunt who had a decent outing in the last seven matches scoring a total of 139 at a strike rate of 124.10. However, Perry crushed all hopes two balls later as she appealed hard for Brunt’s wicket and got the umpire’s finger up in her favour. Sciver-Brunt (10 off 15) reviewed it but to no success as the ball had hit her front pads, thumping into the leg stumps. The big screen on the right of the media box flashed ‘OUT’ and with that Perry made ‘HISTORY’. She became the first player in the history of the WPL to take six wickets in an innings.
After Perry’s carnage, Asha Sobhana, Shreyanka Patil and Sophie Molineux also returned with a wicket apiece in MI’s lowest-ever total of 113 in 19 overs.
RCB will surely have a good sleep tonight as they are no longer winless against MI in WPL.