A brilliant performance by Ellyse Perry took Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to the playoffs in the 2024 WPL. She showed his excellency first with the bowl and then with the bat. Defeated Mumbai Indians (MI) by 7 wickets.
The previous encounter between these two giants where Mumbai defeated Bangalore by 7 wickets, the same margin as in this match.
Royal skipper Smriti Mandhana after winning the toss, goes for chasing.
Mumbai started the way for which they are known as and scored 43 runs for the first wicket in the powerplay. Opener Hayley Matthews (26 runs) and S Sanjana (30 runs) opened the innings in absence of Yastika Bhatia.
Just as the openers went to the pavilion, the whole team just moved to the pavilion one after the other. The middle order was unable to stand against the bowlers and at last the whole team got 113 runs in 19 overs.
Challengers bowlers bowled brilliantly after the powerplay. Perry bowled in one match in this tournament and in this deciding match she just bowled the best bowling figures in the WPL as she got 6 wickets by giving away just 15 runs in her 4 overs. Asha Sobhana, Shreyanka Patil, Sophie Molineux and Sophie Devine got 1 wicket each.
Bangalore also faced hurdles in the chase, as they lost 3 wickets in just 39 runs. It was looking hard for them but then again Perry (40 runs not out) came out as a saviour for the team and just like in her bowling, she delivers with the bat also.
She was well supported by Richa Ghosh (36 runs not out) from the other end. Both of them contributed 76 runs winning partnership for the 4th wicket. Ellyse with a four took her team to the playoffs for the first time. The team scored 115 runs in 15 overs by losing 3 wickets.
Shabnim Ismail, Hayley Matthews and Nat Sciver-Brunt got 1 wicket each.
With this victory, Bangalore got the eliminator spot as they finished 3rd and will play against the 2nd finishing team in the points table.