“It’s something we don’t always get to experience and this is what we love about coming to India.” Amelia Kerr speaks about the Chinnaswamy crowd getting behind the home side, RCB.
Mumbai Indians led by the stand-in skipper Nat Sciver-Brunt returned to winning ways against RCB led by skipper Smriti Mandhana by 7 wickets, courtesy of clinical performances from the stand-in skipper Nat Sciver-Brunt, Pooja Vastrakar, with the ball and from the wicket-keeper batter Yastika Bhatia, Amelia Kerr, and the rest of the Mumbai Indians top order. They claimed the top spot in the points table courtesy of that victory.
Mumbai Indians led by the stand-in skipper Nat Sciver-Brunt won the toss and opted to field first. The South African speedster Shabnim Ismail and the regular skipper Harmanpreet Kaur missed out on being a part of the side for Mumbai Indians as the duo failed to recover in time for the El-Classico clash. After being inserted to bat first, the home side, Royal Challengers Bangalore eventually dragged their way to a modest total of 131/6 on the board, courtesy of a clinical performance from the Mumbai Indians bowling unit.
Skipper Smriti Mandhana (44 off 38 balls), Georgia Wareham (27 off 20 balls), and Sophie Molineux (12 off 14 balls) chipped in with handy contributions to take their side past the 130-run mark. Pooja Vastrakar (3-0-14-2), skipper Nat Sciver-Brunt (4-0-27-2), and Saika Ishaque (2-0-9-1) were the top performers with the ball for Mumbai Indians. The destructive opening batter Sophie Devine’s poor run with the bat in the 2nd edition of the Women’s Premier League continued as she was yet again dismissed on a single-digit score (9 off 10 balls), falling to the left-arm spinner Saika Ishaque. However, she looked confident during her stay at the crease against the Delhi Capitals when she scored 23 runs at a strike rate of 135.29 before getting dismissed.
“Sophie’s been a quality player for so long, so certainly, she and us would love her to be able to get the scores that she’s got for a long period of time. I thought the other night against Delhi, she just started to get going and then unfortunately got out, to a full toss in a sort of uncharacteristic way. But she’s working really hard and we’re really confident that Smriti and Sophie in that opening combination, it’s a really powerful left, right combination and we’re certainly very confident that we’re gonna get off to some really good starts in the back end of the tournament.” RCB head coach Luke Williams backs out of form Sophie Devine to deliver the goods with the bat in the latter part of the tournament.
Chasing a target of 132, Mumbai Indians got over the line with ease by seven wickets and 29 balls to spare. Amelia Kerr and Pooja Vastrakar guided their side over the line, before Yastika Bhatia, Hayley Matthews, and the stand-in skipper chipped in with handy contributions at the top of the order.
“”Yeah it’s obviously tuning up here, it’s very loud and it’s such a great atmosphere anywhere you play in India, but today not being the home team it was extremely loud, obviously, cheering a lot for RCB, so I guess Mumbai got that partnership and got off to a flyer, for the batter it’s nice to hear them quite, but also was great when you get to play in that atmosphere as well because, it’s something we don’t always get to experience and this is what we love about coming to India.” Amelia Kerr speaks about the atmosphere at the Chinnaswamy Stadium and her experience of being a part of it.