Perry powers RCB into WPL playoffs

Ellyse Perry played a starring role as the Royal Challengers Bangalore clinched a comfortable seven wicket win over the Mumbai Indians at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Tuesday night to cruise into the Tata Women’s Premier League playoffs.

It was the final pool match for both teams, with Mumbai having already secured their place in the knockouts and second place on the log, while RCB needed to win to ensure that bottom placed Gujarat Giants had no chance of overhauling them in their final game, which they duly did.

Perry was a very deserved player-of-the-match after her stunning 6/15 in four overs restricted Mumbai to a below par 113 all out batting first, before she anchored the chase with a solid unbeaten 40 off 38 balls (5x4, 1x6) to make sure her team powered home in just 15 overs.

The RCB chase got off to a difficult start as they gave Mumbai hope of defending the low target with three early wickets.

Sophie Molineux (9) was stumped by keeper Priyanka Bala off the bowling of Hayley Matthews in the fourth over, fellow opener Smriti Mandhana (11) followed in the next, caught by Bala off the bowling of Nat Sciver-Brunt, while Sophie Devine (4) was bowled by Shabnim Ismail, leaving them on 39/3 at the start of the seventh over.

However, this brought Richa Ghosh, 36no off 28 (4x4, 2x6), in to join Perry and they steadied the ship before kicking on with a superb unbeaten 76 run fourth wicket partnership off 56 balls to take them home.

What could have been a game changing moment came ninth over when Ghosh on two flicked Ismail straight to Sciver-Brunt at mid-wicket, only for her to drop an absolute sitter that proved incredibly costly in the end.

At the start of play after RCB won the toss and chose to field, Mumbai got off to a strong start with the bat thanks to some solid striking from their openers, before Perry stepped in to rip through their batting order.

Hayley Matthews, 26 off 23 (2x4, 2x6) and Sajeevan Sajana, 30 off 21 (5x4, 1x6) looked good during the powerplay, sharing in a 43-run stand, but off the last ball of the sixth over Devine made the breakthrough having Matthews caught by Perry at deep square leg.

Sajana carried on playing shots and along with Sciver-Brunt (10) added 22 runs to the score, before Perry clean bowled Sajana with a viciously turning delivery and had Harmanpreet Kaur playing onto her own stumps first ball to reduce them to 65/3 after nine overs.

Another double in her next over, Amelia Kerr (2) pinned LBW and Amanjot Kaur (4) bowled off her pads saw Mumbai tumble to 73/5 in the 11th over.

Perry completed her stunning run of overs with a third consecutive double in her final over, bowling Pooja Vastrakar’s (6) off stump out the ground, and then trapping Sciver-Brunt LBW to reduce Mumbai to 82/7 after 13 overs, with them having lost six wickets for 17 runs.

Bala (19no) made sure that her side would get over the hundred run mark, but they were eventually all out with six balls remaining in their innings.

MUMBAI INDIANS: Priyanka Bala (wk), Hayley Matthews, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Amelia Kerr, Amanjot Kaur, Pooja Vastrakar, S Sajana, Humaira Kazi, Shabnim Ismail, Saika Ishaque

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE: Smriti Mandhana (c), Sophie Molineux, Ellyse Perry, Sophie Devine, Richa Ghosh (wk), Georgia Wareham, Disha Kasat, Shreyanka Patil, Asha Sobhana, Shradda Pokharkar, Renuka Singh