WPL 2023: Hayley Matthews’ complete performance helps Mumbai seal huge victory, RCB lose back to back games

Royal Challengers Bangalore loss their second game in a row at the Women’s Premier League 2023. Led by Smriti Mandhana, RCB gave a poor account of themselves, both with bat and ball.

First they failed to survive the full 20 overs after electing to bat first in a flat wicket at Brabourne and then let Mumbai Indians score runs at a rapid rate during the chase in the second innings of the match.

Hayley Matthews was the star of the show scoring 77* runs off 38 balls and picking up 3 wickets for just 28 runs in the first innings of the game. RCB’s woes continued in the WPL after their terrible opening game with the team’s bowling and fielding way below the required standards in international cricket.

Mumbai, while chasing 156 runs, completed the target in 14.2 overs and remained at the top of the table. Mumbai have a massive NRR of 5.185 and it will be very difficult for others teams to eclipse that if the table gets tied in points at some stage of the match.

On the day, Matthews was ably supported by Nat Sciver-Brunt, who brought her full power game on the show, hitting 55* off 29 balls. Sciver-Brunt was the only bowler to have conceded big runs in the first innings, but she made up for her sins with the bat on Monday evening.

Earlier, Royal Challengers Bangalore started off well, but lost their entire top order inside the fifth and sixth over of the game. Just like last gane, RCB batters got their starts, but threw away their wickets as the game progressed. They could have ended with a very low total if not for Shreyanka Patil (23), Kanika Ahuja (22) and Megan Schutt (20) who added a valuable 65 runs in the lower order in the first innings of the match.

RCB will be playing Gujarat Giants next, who have lost back to back matches as well.