Hayley Mathews. (Photo Source: Twitter/WPL)
The inaugural season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2023 has got off to a sensational start for Mumbai Indians. After dominating Gujarat Giants in the season opener, the team went up against Royal Challengers Bangalore, who struggled in their first match as well.
In the end, Mumbai Indians secured a comfortable victory against RCB as they won the game by nine wickets. With two wins in two matches, MI currently sit atop the points table with four points to their name. Following their comprehensive victory, let’s have a look at the talking points from the fourth WPL match.
The woes of RCB:
Despite having a star-studded line-up, the likes of Smriti Mandhana, Ellyse Perry, Sophie Devine, and Heather Knight are unable to put out good performances with the bat. The team faced a batting collapse in both the matches that they have played this season.
The Hayley Matthews show:
After skipper Harmanpreet Kaur’s brilliance in the first game, it was the West Indies all-rounder Hayley Matthews who came through for her side. She scored an unbeaten 77 runs off just 38 deliveries. She also delivered with the ball as well, striking thrice and crippling the batting line-up of RCB.
MI continue their winning ways:
Mumbai Indians have started the inaugural WPL in a resounding fashion. The side secured two comprehensive victories in the first two matches of the tournament. They dominated Gujarat Giants in the season opener and followed it up with an excellent performance against RCB as well.
Winning skipper Harmanpreet Kaur said –
I think batting was the same, we bowled better in the fist game then today, but we did well to restrict them to a small sdcore. We just backed ourselves to chase, everyone in the team are just happy to do it their way and they’re enjoying themselves. It happens in T20s (on the slower over-rate), you need to give that extra minute to the bowlers.
Losing skipper Smriti Mandhana said –
We could have learnt to put down a better score. We have to accept this defeat and come back better. 2-3 batters got into 20s but could not make it count including myself. We do have a good bowling side, we have 6-7 bowling options and we can’t say much to the bowlers when the batters are not putting up the runs. It is a pretty short tournament and we can’t dwell on it, even in franchise cricket if you start winning then you can go on a run. Lots of positives in the form of Kanika and Shriyanka’s batting after the top order collapse, really happy with the way they batted.
Player of the Match Hayley Matthews said –
There wasn’t much difference, was able to bat a bit longer today, the freedom in this MI team has given me plenty of confidence. They’re going well at the moment, watching the ball nicely and the ball is coming on nicely. They did put me under pressure in the 1st over, but it was nice to come back well. We’ve so many match-winners in the team and Harman is leading us well.