MI W vs RCB W | Twitter thrilled as Nadine de Klerk’s superlative all-round effort takes RCB over line in thriller

Venkateswaran N

ByVenkateswaran N,SportsCafe Editor

26

Royal Challengers Bengaluru beat Mumbai Indians by three wickets in a thrilling opening game of the WPL in Navi Mumbai on Friday. Nadine de Klerk shone with an excellent all-round performance picking up four wickets with the ball before taking the side home with an unbeaten half-century.

Nadine de Klerk
‌The opening match of the Women’s Premier League lived up to its billing as Royal Challengers Bengaluru edged past Mumbai Indians by three wickets in a humdinger in Navi Mumbai on Friday. Nadine de Klerk was the star performer with both bat and ball, first picking up a four-wicket haul before powering the chase with an unbeaten half-century.

After opting to bowl at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, RCB had a good start with pacer Lauren Bell keeping Amelia Kerr quiet with a maiden first up. However, Kamalini got going straight away from the other end with two boundaries of left-arm spinner Linsey Smith. But boundaries eluded the home side for the next two overs before pressure finally got to Kerr, with the Kiwi all-rounder holing out Bell to extra cover. But the young Kamalini was unperturbed as she continued her free-spirited stay with the three more boundaries off Smith to take MI to 34/1 at the end of the powerplay. But MI was dealt a huge blow in the next over when an alert Richa Ghosh caught their top run-getter Nat Sciver-Brunt napping with an excellent stumping. Though Kamalini and captain Harmanpreet Kaur steadied the ship for a brief period, RCB snuffed out the set pair in the space of five balls. While Shreyanka Patil took the young southpaw out with an arm ball after a 28-ball 32 innings, which included five fours, medium pacer Nadine de Klerk had her second big fish of the night, adding the MI skipper’s scalp to Sciver-Brunt’s. At 67/4 after 11 overs, the MI innings looked to end prematurely but Sajana Sajeevan and Nicola Carey shored the home side up with a crucial partnership. Sajana was very fortunate to receive two reprieves early on in her innings and made full use of it to smash seven fours and a six in her 25-ball 45. Meanwhile, Carey was all contrast to Sajana’s brute force piercing gaps with her placement to make 40 off 29 balls. The pair’s 82-run association, in just 49 balls, for the fifth wicket took the side to a challenging 154/6 in their allotted 20 overs. For the visitors, De Klerk was impressive with the ball picking up 4/26 in her four overs, while Bell and Shreyanka had a wicket apiece.

In return, Grace Harris gave the visitors a perfect start with a stylish pull in the very first ball from Sciver-Brunt with skipper Smriti Mandhana also joining in with a hit over mid-wicket. The pair scored boundaries for fun, including three boundaries and a six, in Carey’s first over in the WPL to race to 40/0 after three overs. But MI bounced back in style with Shabnim Ismail pricing out Madhana and Sciver-Brunt getting the better of Harris in the next as the Bengaluru-based outfit ended the powerplay at 57/2. The Women in Blue tightened the screws with Amanjot Kaur and Kerr getting wickets in their respective first overs as RCB found themselves in a similar position to that of their opponents at 63/4. And just like that, Kerr went one better of Amanjot scalping the important wicket of Richa Ghosh in the fourth ball of the same over. The wicketkeeper-batter tried to clear the long-off fielder but Carey held on to brilliant catch helping Kerr go past teammate Hayley Matthews to be the highest wicket taker in the history of the WPL. But De Klerk and Arundhati Reddy kept the chase moving, albeit with some quiet overs but more importantly without losing a wicket. With her eye in, the South African all-rounder hit boundaries off Sciver-Brunt and left-arm spinner Saika Ishaque to churn a couple of big overs as the target came down to 50 in the last six overs. But Carey once again put her side ahead with a double-wicket over, dismissing Arundhati and Shreyanka in the 17th with De Klerk left to do the heavylifting all alone. With 29 needed from the last 12, De Klerk enjoyed three lives courtesy of some sloppy fielding from the home side in the space of four balls to haunt the home side. With 18 required in the last over, and after playing two dots, De Klerk kept her calm to smash two sixes and two fours to take the side home in a roller coaster. The Protean all-rounder had seven fours and two sixes in her unbeaten knock of 63 off 44 balls as RCB went past the target to finish at 157/7. Kerr and Carey were the pick among the MI bowlers with spells of 2/13 and 2/35 in their four overs, respectively.

Superb!

What a game!

Too good

Clowns

All round performance

Remember the name

Clutch player

Really

Greatest

Beauty

laught0
astonishment0
sadness0
heart0
like0
dislike0

Comments

0/1000

Sign up or log in to your account to leave comments and reactions

0 Comments