Champs MI slay Challengers

Bengaluru: What began as a bowler's day out for Mumbai Indians ended with their batters complementing that effort to dish out a seven-wicket win over a below-average Royal Challengers Bangalore here on Saturday. 

Both the teams were eager to get back to winning ways after losing their previous outings at the M Chinnaswamy stadium. In the end, it was MI that had the extra spunk to silence the home team playing in front of a 28,000-strong crowd.

Regular skipper Harmanpreet Kaur sat out again due to injury as Natalie Sciver-Brunt took charge for MI for the second match in a row. The English cricketer used as many as seven bowlers to choke RCB who crawled to put up 131/6 on the board. Natalie and Pooja Vastrakar bagged two wickets each as the others kept the pressure on with some tight bowling.

A boundary by Yastika Bhatia signalled the beginning of MI’s chase. The 23-year-old wicketkeeper-batter smashed four boundaries and two sixes in her 15-ball 31 to set the tone for the rest to follow. MI lost Yastika, Hayley Matthews (26) and Natalie (27) who had done enough to give Amelia Kerr (40 n.o.) the confidence to finish off things with 29 balls remaining for the defending champions. 

Earlier, RCB managed to cross the boundary line only 14 times and failed to hit a single maximum in the entire innings. 

The batting debacle began with Smriti Mandhana and Sophie Devine failing to get the ball rolling. Skipper Smriti was the first casualty as she grew impatient to overturn the quiet start. Smriti’s attempt of a big hit off Issy Wong went high in the air, the ball landing safely in the hands of Natalie at cover.

The big-hitting Sabbhineni Meghana had time to settle in and make a mark. The 27-year-old, however, squandered that chance by throwing away her wicket to Natalie. It was then opener Sophie, whose nightmare with the bat continued, to depart a few minutes later.

With their chips down at the end of Powerplay that fetched a mere 34/3, batters Richa Ghosh (7) and Sophie Molineux (12) made it worse by falling for low scores.

Some stability, however, was provided by Ellyse Perry (44 n.o.) and Georgia Wareham (27) with their sixth-wicket stand of 52 runs that was too little too late in their second consecutive loss out of four matches. 

Brief scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore: 131/6 in 20 overs (Ellse Perry 44, Georgia Wareham 27; Natalie Sciver-Brunt 2-27, Pooja Vastrakar 2-14) lt to Mumbai Indians: 133/3 in 15.1 overs (Yastika Bhatia 31, Hayley Matthews 26, Natalie Sciver-Brunt 27, Amelia Kerr 40 n.o).

Result: MI won by 7 wkts.

PoM: Amelia Kerr.