Harmanpreet’s wicket instilled belief: RCB assistant coach
What a season Royal Challengers Bangalore has had! After a seesawing campaign in the league stage, the side — largely thanks to the brilliance of Ellyse Perry — crawled its way into the knockouts. Facing Mumbai Indians — the very side it beat to qualify for the playoffs — RCB’s luck and a few clinical performances under pressure carried the side into the final after it sealed a tense fiverun win in the final over at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Friday.
Smriti opted to bat, looking to set a target on a surface that largely stayed slow. RCB fielded its fourth new opening pair, sending an outofform Sophie Devine alongside Smriti Mandhana. The duo got off to a flyer, taking Shabnim Ismail for 14 runs. Hayley Matthews removed Devine, with the ball clipping her off stump in the second over. Smriti fell two deliveries later to Nat SciverBrunt.
Disha Kasat and Perry were tasked with steadying the innings, but the former — a regular toporder bat in domestic cricket — crumbled under pressure, falling for a sevenball duck. This forced Richa Ghosh to take guard far earlier than she would have liked. MI’s bowlers cramped her for space much like pedestrians struggle for room in the crowded galis of Old Delhi.
Richa, and Sophie Molineux eventually made their way back to the dugout, leaving Perry to do all the heavy lifting yet again. She scored yet another fifty, with a sublime 50ball 66 helping a oncedoomed RCB total to a respectable 135.
Matthews and Yastika Bhatia started positively but the former’s poor run of form continued after Shreyanka Patil dismissed her in the fourth over. Perry removed Yastika and kept things tight, sticking to a tried and testing stump line. SciverBrunt was taken out by Wareham just as she started breaching the boundary.
Harmanpreet Kaur and Amelia Kerr looked set to take the team through with a 52run stand, but Harman and Sajana soon after found themselves watching nervously from the dugout.
With 12 needed off the last six balls, Smriti turned to Asha Sobhana who helped keep things tight, removed Pooja Vastrakar and closed out a dicey win, defending the lowest score in the tournament.
RCB will lock horns with Delhi Capitals as both bid for a maiden WPL title on Sunday.
ROYAL CHALLENGERS Smriti Mandhana c Ismail b SciverBrunt 10 (7b, 2x4), Sophie Devine b Matthews 10 (7b, 2x4), Ellyse Perry c SciverBrunt b Saika 66 (50b, 8x4, 1x6), Disha Kasat c Pooja b Saika 0 (7b), Richa Ghosh c SciverBrunt b Matthews 14 (19b, 1x4, 1x6), Sophie Molineux b SciverBrunt 11 (17b, 1x4), Georgia Wareham (not out) 18 (10b, 1x4, 1x6), Shreyanka Patil (not out) 3 (3b); Extras (lb3): 3; Total (for six wkts. in 20 overs): 135.
FALL OF WICKETS
120 (Devine, 1.6 overs), 220 (Smriti, 2.2), 323 (Disha, 3.4), 449 (Richa, 9.1), 584 (Molineux, 14.6), 6126 (Perry, 19.2).
MUMBAI INDIANS BOWLING Ismail 41300, Matthews 40182, SciverBrunt 40182, Saika 30272, Pooja 30210, Kerr 20180.
MUMBAI INDIANS Yastika Bhatia b Perry 19 (27b, 3x4), Hayley Matthews c Wareham b Shreyanka 15 (14b, 3x4), Nat SciverBrunt b Wareham 23 (17b, 4x4), Harmanpreet Kaur c Devine b Shreyanka 33 (30b, 4x4), Amelia Kerr (not out) 27 (25b, 2x4), S. Sajana st. Richa b Molineux 1 (3b), Pooja Vastrakar st. Richa b Asha 4 (4b), Amanjot Kaur (not out) 1 (1b); Extras (lb4, w2, nb1): 7; Total (for six wkts. in 20 overs): 130.
FALL OF WICKETS
127 (Matthews, 3.5), 250 (Yastika, 7.6), 368 (SciverBrunt, 10.4), 4120 (Harmanpreet, 17.6), 5123 (Sajana, 18.5), 6128 (Pooja, 19.4)
RCB BOWLING Renuka 1060, Shreyanka 40162, Devine 1090, Perry 40291, Molineux 40161, Wareham 40371, Asha 20131. Toss: RCB; PoM: Perry.
RCB won by five runs.
Final: March 17: DC vs RCB.
Happy ending:
Royal Challengers had the last laugh in a humdinger against Mumbai Indians.
Yet another masterclass from Ellyse Perry notwithstanding, Mumbai Indians would not have been wrong to think it had a grip on the Eliminator for a major part of the evening. RCB’s quick thinking, persistence and the brilliance of a few personalities helped the side knock out the defending champion.
RCB assistant coach Malolan Rangarajan admitted that the belief that his side could seal the game came after Harmanpreet Kaur’s dismissal.
“As a team, we know chasing has been difficult and that would have been running in their mind. They would have wanted to hit big sixes. When we batted, as soon as we played the fifth to sixth over, we knew 150160 would be a good score. We had too many dot balls. I am not able to pinpoint when that belief crept in but I
think when Harman got out, we thought there was something there for us.”
Rangarajan hailed Asha Sobhana for holding her nerve in the tense finish.
“Our idea was to bowl the best of our bowlers, take the game to the last over and see what comes of it. When I was playing, V.B. Chandrasekhar once made a statement to us where he said players are made in four minutes, i.e., one over. Credit to Asha. To bowl leg spin with a shorter boundary on one side and see the game through took me back to this line.”
“We lost the game when we should have won it,” MI head coach Charlotte Edwards conceded after the game, agreeing that Harmanpreet’s wicket turned the tide. “You can cope with things when you don’t play well, but we were doing well and we didn’t cope well today and it’s brought the end of our tournament.”