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All-round Kaur, teen Kamalini lead Mumbai to WPL win over RCB

football21 February 2025 18:55| © MWP
By:Ross Roche
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An all-round performance from Amanjot Kaur and a superb finish from 16-year-old G Kamalini helped Mumbai Indians pick up a thrilling four-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru in their Women’s Premier League match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday night.

Kaur was brilliant with the ball, with her 3-22 in three overs helping Mumbai restrict RCB to a very chaseable 167-7 in their 20 overs batting first, before she struck an unbeaten 34 off 27 balls (2x4; 2x6) to help her side get over the line with a ball to spare.

Kamalini made history earlier in the week when she made her debut for Mumbai against Gujarat Giants, making her the youngest ever debutant in the WPL at the age of 16 years and 213 days.

A few days later she played a starring role as her unbeaten 11 off eight balls, during a 26-run seventh-wicket stand with Kaur, got Mumbai home. Indeed, it was her boundary off the penultimate ball that won the match.

That will be a huge boost for the teenager, who was a part of the victorious Indian U19 Women’s World Cup winning team that beat the South African U19s in the final at the start of February.

“It feels very good (to win the match for the team). I knew that they might give an over to Kanika and against offspinners I have more options,” said a relieved Kaur after the match.

“I felt that if I stayed there, we could win the match. When she (Kamalini) came in, I knew I had to make her settle by taking singles and that I had to target the 19th over if we were to win.”

At the start of play Mumbai won the toss and chose to field and after a blazing start from RCB captain Smriti Mandhana, 26 off 13 (4x4; 1x6), they managed to reel them back in.

Mandhana crunched 26 of her team's 29 runs within the first three overs, but then edged Shabnim Ismail behind to keeper Yastika Bhatia to become the first to fall.

That started a procession as Danni Wyatt-Hodge (9), Raghvi Bist (1) and Kanika Ahuja (1) all followed soon after, as RCB slumped to 57-4 in the eighth over.

Ellyse Perry, 81 off 43 (11x4; 2x6), then received some good support from Richa Ghosh (28) as they looked to rebuild the innings with a 50-run fifth-wicket stand.

Just as they were looking to build a good platform Kaur entered the stage, breaking the stand when she bowled Ghosh.

She also had Georgia Wareham (6) caught and although Perry continued on with the lower order, taking them to a decent score, she fell off the penultimate ball of the innings, caught by Ismail off Kaur.

A FLURRY OF WICKETS

The Mumbai chase got off to a decent start despite the early wicket of Bhatia (8) in the second over, as Nat Sciver-Brunt, 42 off 21 ((9x4) and Hayley Matthews (15) shared in a 57-run second-wicket stand.

A flurry of wickets then saw the back of the two set batters and Amelia Kerr (2) as Mumbai slipped to 82-4 in the 10th over, before captain Harmanpreet Kaur, 50 off 38 (8x4; 1x6), and her namesake Amanjot combined for a 62-run stand to get their side close.

Wareham, who finished with superb figures of 3-21 in her four overs, ruffled some feathers by having Harmanpreet caught behind by keeper Ghosh, and trapped new batter Sajeevan Sajana LBW first ball to reduce Mumbai to 144-6 in the 18th over.

But Kaur and Kamalini held their nerve over the closing overs to ease their team to a valuable win over the previously unbeaten competition defending champs.

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BENGALURU: Smriti Mandhana (capt), Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Ellyse Perry, Raghvi Bist, Richa Ghosh (wk), Kanika Ahuja, Georgia Wareham, Ekta Bisht, Kim Garth, VJ Joshitha, Renuka Singh

MUMBAI INDIANS WOMEN: Yastika Bhatia (wkt), Hayley Matthews, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Amelia Kerr, Amanjot Kaur, G Kamalini, Sajeevan Sajana, Sanskriti Gupta, Shabnim Ismail, Parunika Sisodia

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