Ellyse Perry’s genius propels RCB over MI by seven wickets

After the RCB won the toss and chose to field first, the Mumbai Indians had difficulties. Hayley Matthews was out for 26, caught by Perry off Sophie Devine, and they made 43 runs for the first wicket.

Perry then gave Sajeevan Sajana a thorough cleaning after a 30-minute outdoor delivery. Then, when captain and star batsman Harmanpreet Kaur played-on after Perry’s long drive crashed into the stumps for a duck, the Mumbai Indians were taken aback.

Mumbai Indians were at 65/3 after losing two wickets in two deliveries in the ninth over, then Amelia Kerr was out four runs later in the eleventh over. Perry finished with a six-wicket haul, but the procession went on as they continued to lose wickets, finishing at 6-15. Mumbai Indians could only muster a pitiful 113, putting RCB in a commanding lead.

Mumbai Indians were bowled out for 113 runs by RCB, thanks to a six-for-15 haul from Perry.

Then, in only 15 overs, the Australian all-rounder helped RCB to victory with an unbeaten 40 and a 76-run partnership with Richa Ghosh (36 not out).

Brief scores: Mumbai 113 in 19 overs (Hayley Matthews 26, Sajeevan Sajana 30; Ellyse Perry 6/15) lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore 115 for 3 in 15 overs (Ellyse Perry 40 not out, Richa Ghosh 36 not out).

Ellyse Perry, Player of the Match: “Sometimes, it just goes your way. Really nice to play a great match with the girls. It was an important game and nice to get a win over them – first time in the competition. I really enjoyed bowling. Sometimes, I am just getting walloped all around the ground, then some days it is like this. The ball nipped around a little bit and it was fun. The games are coming thick and fast and you don’t know. You turn up and have a go. I loved that partnership with Richa. It was a tricky chase, not the easiest wicket tonight. We have grown through the tournament. We are getting used to the conditions and looking forward to the chance in a couple of days’ time. We are going to have another tough opponent, same opponent next game but good to be there.”

Smriti Mandhana, Royal Challengers Bangalore captain: “The last match, losing by one run, is not a great thing, given the effort everyone put. That was the whole conversation that one run does not make us a bad team. We played good cricket that day as well. We had a good training session yesterday and wanted to come back. They had a good start. Sajana batted well, even Hayley had a good start. There was calmness today. We were not rushed. Good effort and the way Pez bowled, it was brilliant to watch. Today’s match was very important for us to get going. From the time we came to Delhi, we had two tough losses and wanted to play good cricket today. For her to come back and take those six wickets, I was just going ‘wow’. We spoke about today being a quarter-final. We did not think about the scenarios, wanted to win and just qualify. Would not have been a good thing to qualify without winning this match, really happy we could do that.”

Harmanpreet Kaur, Mumbai Indians captain: “She bowled very well today. None of us took the responsibility to bat deep. We tried our best. Unfortunately, we dropped some chances. Our bowlers were giving their 100% but there were not enough runs on the board. We did not bat according to how she was bowling. But Perry bowled really well, we should give credit to them. Today’s game will teach us a lot of things. We will sit together and see how we make our plans for the next game.”