The 26-year-old Sophie Molineux was not able to contribute good runs with the bat for the Royal Challengers Bangalore Women (RCB-W) in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2024 Eliminator as she was castled by the 31-year-old Mumbai Indians Women (MI-W) all-rounder Nat Sciver-Brunt on Friday, March 15, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.
Sophie Molineux was forced to come in to bat early as the Royal Challengers Bangalore Women (RCB-W) faced a batting collapse. The top-order batters of the team didn’t do well and failed in the crucial match of the league. They went from 20/0 to 49/4 as Sophie Devine, Smriti Mandhana, Disha Kasat, and Richa Ghosh were back in the hut.
Sophie Molineux next came to bat and she tried to build a good partnership with the all-round great Ellyse Perry. The duo played cautiously and stabilized the innings for the Royal Challengers Bangalore Women. They were involved in a 35-run partnership off 35 balls.
Looking at the RCB-W build a partnership, Harmanpreet Kaur gave the ball to Nat Sciver-Brunt and she castled Molineux to break the important stand for RCB-W. On the last ball of the 15th over, Nat Sciver-Brunt bowled a 91.6kph slower delivery and Molineux moved down the leg-side to play a cut shot. However, she missed the delivery altogether and saw her stumps getting destroyed. Molineux scored 11 runs off 17 balls, including one four, before getting castled.
Watch: Nat Sciver-Brunt stuns Sophie Molineux with a stunning delivery in WPL 2024
— Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka (@Hanji_CricDekho) March 15, 2024
In the end, Royal Challengers Bangalore Women posted a decent total of 135/6 on the board, thanks to the heroics of Ellyse Perry. Despite not getting much support from the other batters, she performed exceptionally well and helped her team post a good total on the board. The Aussie great smashed 66 runs off 50 balls, with 8 fours and 1 six before walking back to the hut.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore Women would be looking to better their record against Mumbai Indians Women by winning the Eliminator as currently, the MI-W have a 3-1 win-loss record against RCB-W in WPL history.
Earlier, Smriti Mandhana won the toss and invited the Harmanpreet Kaur-led Mumbai Indians to bowl first in the match. Speaking at the toss, Harmanpreet Kaur said that they have learned a lot from their previous match and would be looking forward to performing well against RCB-W. She said:
“We were very confused, we were looking to bat first as well. Yastika is back today for Bala. Last time when we batted first, we had a nice powerplay. We didn’t continue after that. We have learnt a lot. Even the bowling was good in patches. Today is a new day, hopefully, we do whatever we are expecting to do. Staying in the moment is very important. Today’s game is important and we want to give our 100%.”
Mumbai Indians Women (Playing XI): Hayley Matthews, Yastika Bhatia(w), Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Amelia Kerr, Amanjot Kaur, Pooja Vastrakar, S Sajana, Humaira Kazi, Shabnim Ismail, Saika Ishaque
Royal Challengers Bangalore Women (Playing XI): Smriti Mandhana(c), Sophie Molineux, Ellyse Perry, Sophie Devine, Richa Ghosh(w), Georgia Wareham, Disha Kasat, Shreyanka Patil, Asha Sobhana, Shraddha Pokharkar, Renuka Thakur Singh
