Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], March 2 (ANI): Royal Challengers Bangalore's struggle against defending champions Mumbai Indians continued following their seven-wicket defeat in the ongoing Women's Premier League season at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.
MI registered their third consecutive victory against RCB in the WPL. Everything went MI's way as they completely dominated RCB in every aspect of the game.
The whole match was summed up as throughout their innings, RCB managed to score just 14 boundaries, while MI struck 22 boundaries with seven wickets in hand and almost five overs to spare.
While chasing a paltry target of 132, MI got off to a quick start with Yastika Bhatia and Hayley Matthews firing all the cylinders in the powerplay. Their onslaught saw them put up a 45-run opening stand.
Yastika (31) was the first batter to get dismissed by Sophie Devine. Mathews (26) looked in fine touch but ended up losing her wicket after the powerplay.
Nat Sciver-Brunt (27) came in played a couple of shots and set the game for the middle-order batters to finish off the game.
Amelia Kerr's (40*) blitz propelled MI to a thumping seven-wicket victory with almost five overs to spare.
Earlier in the innings, RCB batters Smriti Mandhana and Devine opened the innings after being asked to bat first by MI stand-in skipper Sciver-Brunt. Both batters put up a paltry partnership of 14 runs before Smriti was dismissed by right-arm seamer Issy Wong after scoring just nine runs.
Sabbhineni Meghana fell next after scoring just 11 runs. She was dismissed by Sciver-Brunt in the fifth over when the team score was 31.
Inside 11 runs, RCB lost back-to-back wickets. Devine went back to the dressing room after scoring nine runs when the team score was 33 and then Richa Ghosh followed in the footsteps of the Kiwi batter.
After four quick wickets, Ellyse Perry and Sophie Molineux tried to repair the damage. They were able to add 29 runs to the total before the latter was sent back after scoring 12 runs on the first ball of the 13th over.
Royal Challengers Bangalore brought their 100 in the 16th over.
Perry along with Georgia Wareham built a 50-run stand before the latter was dismissed in the penultimate over (19th) when the team score was 123. She was able to score 27 runs off 20 balls with the help of two fours.
RCB finished off their 20 overs at 131/6 with Perry playing an unbeaten knock of 44 runs from 38 balls which was laced by five boundaries.
The pick of the bowlers for the defending champions was Vastrakar and Sciver-Brunt who snapped two wickets each in their spells where they conceded 14 and 27 runs respectively. One wicket each was grabbed by Issy Wong and Saika Ishaque in their respective respells.
Brief Score: Royal Challengers Bangalore 131/6 in 20 overs (Ellyse Perry 44*, Georgia Wareham 27, Pooja Vastrakar 2/14) vs Mumbai Indians 133/3 (Amelia Kerr 40*, Yastika Bhatia 31; Shreyanka Patil 1-15). (ANI)
