MI go top with RCB scalp

Bengaluru, March 2

Mumbai Indians’ batters and bowlers were in perfect sync as they sealed a seven-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in their Women’s Premier League match here today.

Yastika Bhatia (31 off 15 balls) and Hayley Matthews (26 off 21 balls) added 45 runs for the first wicket in just 3.5 overs to construct the platform for the chase.

The subsequent batters exploited the strong start to register a fine win, reaching the 132-run target with 29 balls to spare to take them to the top of the table with six points.

The MI bowlers were efficient while restricting RCB to a timid 131/6.

Bhatia gave a fiery start to the Mumbai chase as she began with a boundary off pacer Renuka Singh in the very first ball and the introduction of Sophie Molineux prompted her to take aggression to next level.

The left-hander smashed the left-arm spinner over the deep midwicket for a six and then carted her past point for a four. However, Bhatia was not all power as she showed a delectable touch too, like a flowing back-foot punch off Sophie Devine. But Devine had the last laugh as Bhatia’s drive away from her body was snaffled by stumper Richa Ghosh diving to her left.

Matthews, who thumped a six off Georgia Wareham over midwicket, perished when she drilled an uppish drive straight to Smriti Mandhana off off-spinner Shreyanka Patil. MI needed 63 runs from that point on but stand-in captain Nat-Sciver Brunt (27 off 25 balls) and Amelia Kerr (40 not out off 27 balls) hardly broke a sweat while adding 49 runs for the third wicket through a medley of pulls, reverse sweeps and late cuts.

Earlier, RCB would have been in deeper trouble had Elyse Perry (44 not out off 38 balls) and Wareham (27 off 20 balls) not added 52 runs for the sixth wicket after MI decided to bowl first.

Brief Scores: RCB: 131/6 in 20 overs (Perry 44*; Vastrakar 2/14, Sciver-Brunt 2/27); Mumbai Indians: 133/3 in 15.1 overs (Kerr 40*; Shreyanka 1/15).