Harmanpreet & Co. spoil RCB’s homecoming

MI’s Harmanpreet Kaur, performs a shot, in the course of the Ladies’s Premier League (WPL) 2025 match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Mumbai Indians (MI), M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, in Bengaluru on February 21, 2025.
| Picture Credit score: Murali Kumar

The Backyard Metropolis hardly ever misses a possibility to show up in numbers for a Ladies’s Premier League match. And so it did on Friday, filling the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium to the brim. Sadly, it needed to return dwelling dissatisfied as its beloved Royal Challengers Bengaluru misplaced to Mumbai Indians by 4 wickets.

An Ellyse Perry particular (81, 43b, 11×4, 2×6) had carried RCB to a aggressive 167 for seven however MI, through Nat Sciver-Brunt’s scorching 42 (21b, 9×4), captain Harmanpreet Kaur’s part-sedate, part-aggressive 50 (38b, 8×4, 1×6) and Amanjot Kaur’s first-rate ending act (34 n.o., 27b, 2×4, 2×6) handed RCB its first loss in three video games.

Sciver-Brunt set the PowerPlay overs on hearth earlier than Harmanpreet and Amanjot introduced the equation right down to 24 off 18. Tweaker Georgia Wareham practically turned the sport on its head by eradicating Harmanpreet and Sajana Sajeevan off back-to-back deliveries.

However with 22 required off 12, Amanjot smoked Kanika Ahuja for 2 sixes earlier than the nerveless G. Kamalini, all of 16, introduced MI its second win from three matches with a fiercely pushed 4 off the penultimate ball.

Earlier, after RCB was requested to bat first, Perry blossomed whilst these round her withered. Skipper Smriti Mandhana began beautifully (26, 13b, 4×4, 1×6), pulling and chopping Shabnim Ismail and Sciver-Brunt in knowledgeable vogue. However a miscued hoick within the third over off Shabnam ended her keep, and from 29 for one, RCB fell to 57 for 4. 

Nonetheless, a advantageous 50-run partnership between Perry and Richa Ghosh (28, 25b, 3×4, 1×6) resurrected the RCB innings and the duo ensured the house aspect amassed 105 runs from overs 10 to twenty.

Perry was strong on the leg-side, planting her foot and smashing every thing in sight. The beautiful boundary over additional cowl off Amelia Kerr that she executed to get to her half-century confirmed her all-round batting potential. However even her finest couldn’t save the day for RCB.