Mumbai Indians Women 170 for 6 in 19.5 overs  (Harmanpreet Kaur  50, Nat Sciver-Brunt 42, Amanjot Kaur 34; Kim Garth 2-30, Georgia  Wareham 3-21, EktaBisht 1-37) beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru Women 167 for 7 in 20 overs  (Elysse Perry 81, Richa Ghosh 28, Smriti Mandhana 26;  Amanjot Kaur  3-22, Shabnim Ismail 1-36, Nat Sciver-Brunt 1-40, Hayley Matthews 1-37,  SanskritiGupta 1-03, ) by four wicket

Win the toss, field first, win the match. This has been the story of all seven games in WPL 2025 so far. Mumbai Indians (MI) were the latest benefactors of winning the toss as they beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) by four wickets in the first game of the Bengaluru leg.

Bowling first, MI restricted RCB to 167 for 7 despite a pristine 81 off 43 balls by Elyse Perry. Then they had the joint-best powerplay of the season, cruising to 66 for 2.Harmanpreet Kaur ‘s  half-century kept MI in a comfortable position until Georgia Wareham dismissed her and S Sajana off successive balls in the 18th over. Amanjo5 Kaur  took over from there and, with 22 needed from 12 balls, hit Kanika Ahuja for two sixes. That brought it down to run-a-ball in the final over. Still, it came down to two needed from two balls before 16-year-old  G Kamalini smashed Ekta Bisht through covers to seal the game.

Shabnim Ismail is the fastest bowler in women’s cricket and it showed immediately. Opening the bowling for MI, Ismail hurried Smriti Mandhana  with a bouncer, the RCB captain’s mistimed pull falling short of mid-on. However, Mandhana took just one delivery to adjust to the pace and the bounce of the pitch. Two balls later, when Ismail hurled another short ball, Mandhana quickly got into the position and pulled it over square leg for four.

It made Ismail switch to around the wicket. For the last ball of the over, she went short again, this time trying to cramp the batter. Mandhana unfurled another four with a pull.

In her next over, Ismail erred in her line, and Mandhana duly cut her to the point boundary twice in three balls. But Ismail had the last laugh. She went short again, angling the ball on this occasion. Mandhana must have been feeling invincible by then. She attempted another pull. But this one took the top edge and Yastika Bhatia settled under it behind the stumps

Perry opened her account with a first-ball four, flicking a full delivery from Ismail over square leg. In the next over, she freed her arms and hit Sciver-Brunt over long-on. But MI pulled things back with three quick wickets. Danni Wyatt-Hodge miscued an upper cut against Sciver-Brunt to short third; Raghvi Bist hit Hayley Matthews into the hands of deep midwicket; and Ahuja chopped Sanskriti Gupta onto her stumps. After nine overs, RCB were 62 for 4.

RCB did not hit a single boundary from overs six to nine. Perry ended the drought in the tenth when she dispatched Matthews for four. She found support from Richa Ghosh, who smashed a six in the same over. The pair combined to pocket five more fours in the next three overs. By the time Amanjot bowled Ghosh for 28 off 25, the partnership had reached 50 in 38 deliveries.

From there on, Perry carried RCB almost singlehandedly. She hit Amelia Kerr inside out over extra cover to bring her fifty off 30 balls. Two balls later, she jumped out of her crease to deposit Kerr over long-on. In the next over, Matthews paid the price for bowling too short as Perry picked up two more fours. Perry eventually fell to Amanjot on the penultimate ball of the innings but not before hitting the bowler for back-to-back fours.

MI started their chase in an attacking manner, with Bhatia hitting Renuka Singh for two fours in the opening over. Even though Kim Garth trapped Bhatia for 8, there was no respite for RCB. Sciver-Brunt hit two fours off the first two balls she faced to keep the runs flowing. She took it a notch higher in Garth’s next over with three fours.

Matthews joined with back-to-back fours off Wareham. Bisht, who came in for the sixth over was not spared either. Sciver-Brunt started with a hat-trick of fours and Matthews chipped in with one. The only solace for Bisht was that she had Matthews lbw with her last ball.

Garth provided RCB with some relief when she castled Sciver-Brunt for 42 off 21 balls in the eighth over. Two overs later, Wareham bowled a maiden in which she also had Kerr slicing to backward point.

Harmanpreet had had a slow start and was on 10 off ten balls after the tenth over. But she put the chase back on track with two fours off VJ Joshitha. MI needed 54 in the last six overs but Harmanpreet was well set by then. She hit Ahuja for successive fours, slog-swept Bisht into the stands, and picked up two more fours of Renuka to make MI firm favourites.

Brief scores:

Mumbai Indians Women 170 for 6 in 19.5 overs  (Harmanpreet Kaur  50, Nat Sciver-Brunt 42, Amanjot Kaur 34; Kim Garth 2-30, Georgia  Wareham 3-21, EktaBisht 1-37) beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru Women 167 for 7 in 20 overs  (Elysse Perry 81, Richa Ghosh 28, Smriti Mandhana 26;  Amanjot Kaur  3-22, Shabnim Ismail 1-36, Nat Sciver-Brunt 1-40, Hayley Matthews 1-37,  SanskritiGupta 1-03, ) by four wickets

(Cricinfo)

Ryan Rickelton is showing the value of runs under the belt. He came into the Champions Trophy on the back of a solid SA20, where he was the fourth-highest scorer. Before that, he had smoked 259 in the New Year’s Test against Pakistan. On Friday, it was time for him to leave his mark on the 50-over format as he scored his maiden ODI century in his seventh game as South Africa began their Champions Trophy with a solid 107-run win over Afghanistan.

Batting first on a Karachi surface that had a nice layer of grass, South Africa rode on Rickelton’s 103 followed by steady fifties from Temba Bavuma,  Rassie van der Dussen and Aiden Markram  to rack up 315 for 6. That meant Afghanistan had to record their highest-ever successful chase if they had to win on Champions Trophy debut.

But they never really got close. Rahmat Shah  was the only bright spot as he scored a sprightly 90 off 92 balls, and was the last batter to fall. But with a second-highest score of 18, Afghanistan were never really in it. Kagiso Rabada  picked up three wickets, while Lungi Ngidi and Wiaan Mulder  got two each as Afghanistan were bundled for 208 in 43.3 overs.

It was a largely flawless innings from Rickelton. He never looked rushed; not when Tony de Zorzi fell early or when Bavuma took his time to get going. Rickelton struck boundaries whenever he got a chance. When he didn’t, he quietly rotated the strike. He started with a lovely punch past mid-off third ball before going back-to-back against Fazalhaq Farooqi in the fifth over, once with a fierce pull through midwicket and then a cut past point.

De Zorzi also struck two fours but fell to a rather nonchalant delivery from Mohammad Nabi early on when he flopped it straight to mid-on

Bavuma’s first 19 balls yielded only seven runs before he got a couple of fours away to get into the groove. Rickelton, meanwhile, picked Azmatullah Omarzai for two delightful fours to raise his fifty off just 48 balls.

South Africa ticked along to 83 for 1 after 15 overs, but an important passage of play was about to come: South Africa batters vs Afghanistan’s spinners. That’s where Rickelton really showed his wares. He would have faced a lot of Rashid Khan in the SA20 nets as they were part of the victorious MI Cape Town side, and that experience showed.

Bavuma got to his second fifty away from home, as he continued his rich form. He had a solid 129-run stand for the second wicket with Rickelton, before holing out to deep midwicket as Nabi picked his second wicket.

By that time, Rickelton had moved into his 90s, and had hardly broken a sweat. Afghanistan hardly helped themselves in the field, too. There were several misfields, and a run-out chance fluffed, while Noor Ahmad was particularly off-colour. He was either too short, or too full, and often tried to dart the ball in and lost his shape.

Rickelton soon became the first South Africa batter to register a century on Champions Trophy debut with a push to long-off.

Afghanistan got a lucky break when Rickelton was run-out in bizarre fashion. He bunted a Rashid length ball back to the bowler, who fired a flat throw to the wicketkeeper. Rickelton, out of his crease, was caught off-guard just a touch, and as he put in the dive, his bat bounced just short of the crease. That meant even though his bat was over the line, it was in the air when Rahmanullah Gurbaz whipped the bails off.

There was no respite for Afghanistan though. Van der Dussen, coming into the tournament not in great nick, was fluent and Markram found his stride as well, with both batters recording fifties. The last five overs yielded South Africa 51 runs as they posted an above-par total.

For Afghanistan to chase down 316, it was imperative for Gurbaz to get going. But South Africa’s new-ball bowlers weren’t ready to give him an inch. Ngidi’s short-of-a-length ball got the better of Gurbaz as he got a top-edge to short fine leg. No. 3 Sediqullah Atal struggled big time. Ibrahim Zadran finally broke the shackles by hammering Rabada over wide long-on. That obviously did not please the bowler, who returned with a 148.3kph thunderbolt and sent Ibrahim’s middle stump splat.

The South Africa pace bowlers concentrated on that hard length. According to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, in the first 15 overs, 33 of the balls bowled by South Africa were either short or short-of-a-good length.

Shubman Gill dug deep for his slowest ODI hundred and India’s slowest in the last six years to see India through a tricky chase of 229 that must have brought back memories of their 3-0 series defeat to Sri Lanka last on similarly slow tracks. Despite a quick 69-run opening stand, India were tested by a target that was kept by Mohammed Shami,  who took his sixth ODI five-for and became the quickest man to 200 ODI wickets in terms of balls bowled to get there.

Both sides will rue missed opportunities in their Champions Trophy opener. Bangladesh won a crucial toss on a tired pitch with no dew expected to make chasing easier, but they got off to such a poor start that they needed three dropped catches and a superlative fighting hundred from Towhid Hridoy to stay in the contest. India had Bangladesh down at 35 for 5, Axar Patel was on a hat-trick, and Rohit Sharma dropped a sitter followed by two lives for the record-breaking sixth-wicket stand. It allowed Bangladesh to get to a target that denied India a net-run-rate boost, which can prove crucial if they happen to lose one of their three matches.

India will still consider this a banana peel survived having misread the conditions and decided to field first should they have won the toss. On a slow pitch with no assistance for the quicks, they were gifted early wickets through some indiscriminate hitting. Bangladesh possibly felt the new ball was the best time to bat: they didn’t wait for a bad ball on offer and kept losing wickets. The first three fell to ambitious shots to plain good-length bowling with little seam.