Mumbai hand Bangalore their second defeat in highly-anticipated WPL clash

The Harmanpreet Kaur-led Mumbai Indians comprehensively registered a win against Royal Challengers Bangalore by nine wickets at the Brabourne Stadium in the ongoing Women’s Premier League (WPL) on Monday, March 6.

Harmanpreet’s counterpart, Smriti Mandhana won the toss and elected to bat first. Openers Sophie Devine and Smriti handed a brisk start. The duo got the boundaries quick and seemed to be in complete control of the highly-anticipated clash.

However, their stand at the crease was cut-short by an in-form Saika Ishaque who got the vital scalp of Devine. What followed was the middle-order falling like a pack of cards as the side lost consecutive wickets under 50 runs.

Smriti too lost momentum and was sent packing for just 23 runs off 17 balls by Hayley Matthews. Down the middle-order, Richa Ghosh and Kanika Ahuja tried to put up a fight as the duo stitched a 34-run partnership before the latter was sent back to the dug-out.

With little to no help coming from the rest of the unit, RCB eventually posted a total of 155 runs on the board. Meanwhile, Hayley Matthews picked up a three-wicket haul whereas Amelia Kerr and Ishaque got two wickets each.

Mumbai comfortably chase down 156 runs

In response to the total, Hayley Matthews and Yastika Bhatia handed a decent head start as the duo got 45 runs between them. However, Preeti Bose scalped the wicket of Bhatia which interestingly was the only wicket in the run chase.

What followed was sheer domination by Matthews and Nat Sciver-Brunt as the latter joined the party almost instantly. The duo got the boundaries with ease as the rival bowling had no clue how to break the partnership.

Matthews and Sciver-Brunt remained unbeaten with blistering knocks of 77 off 38 balls and 55 off 29 balls respectively to guide the side to a comfortable win. With the 114-run stand, Mumbai won the contest by nine wickets handing RCB their second loss.