First-season champions Mumbai Indians (MI) finished the league stage second behind Delhi Capitals for the third year in a row, after failing to chase down 200 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at Brabourne Stadium. Needing a win to top the table and seal a direct final berth, MI put on a shoddy fielding display that gave RCB a competitive total. In their reply Nat Sciver-Brunt was the only batter to cross 23 as the hosts fell to their first loss at Brabourne in six games.

RCB’s 11-run win was the third victory in a row for the team batting first at WPL 2025 after the early trend was heavily in favour of teams chasing. Their win that helped them off the bottom of the table was set up by a half-century from Smriti Mandhana, free-flowing strokeplay from S Meghana.  Ellyse Perry’s anchoring role, and boundary-laden cameos from Richa Ghosh and Georgia Wareham.

For MI, Sciver-Brunt did the heavy lifting after the losses of Hayley Matthews and Harmanpreet Kaur, but once she fell for a stunning 69 off 35 in the 15th over, MI had too much to score (71 runs) in too little time (31 balls) with no big names to follow.

With nothing to lose in this campaign, RCB came out all guns blazing in their last game and they did it audaciously by targeting MI’s best bowlers. Meghana clubbed Sciver-Brunt for two fours in the second over before seeing Mandhana end the third over with a four followed by a glorious straight six against Shabnim Ismail. Meghana then welcomed Matthews with 4, 6 and 4 but Matthews’ riposte came in the form of a 102.8kmh bouncer which she top-edged to short fine leg for 26 off 13.

RCB finished the powerplay on 53 for 1, and Perry made MI pay for gifting her three lives. The next bowler to be carted all around was Amelia Kerr. Once her first ball – a long hop – was pulled for four by Perry, Mandhana swept her for six, flicked for four and swung her down the ground for a 22-run over. Briefly after MI pulled the run rate down from 9.62 to under 8.50 an over, Mandhana collected two consecutive aerial fours to reach her fifty off 35 balls.

Kerr’s second over was even more dramatic. She gave Perry a life on 16 when she failed to hold on to the ball that was smashed back to her. Two balls later, Mandhana, on 52, skied a sweep but Sanskriti Gupta put down a sitter at midwicket. That didn’t cost MI much as Mandhana found long-off on her next ball.

What did cost MI was Perry’s life. She gloriously lofted Ismail for a six next over and drilled Parunika Sisodia for four after Ghosh had already collected two fours in the 14th over. Ghosh was also living dangerously. She miscued a couple of swings before tearing Ismail apart. A reverse-scoop edged for four, a mighty straight six and a scoop right over the keeper fetched 15 from the over to give Ismail figures of 0 for 41. Ghosh miscued Matthews for 36 off 22 next over but Perry and Wareham piled on more boundaries.

The duo went after Amanjot Kaur – whose tight lines saw her concede just nine off her first three overs – for four fours all around, which included the reliable Sciver-Brunt putting down a dolly at deep midwicket after being distracted by the spidercam. Perry was dropped on the first ball of the last over, bowled by Kerr, that went for four. Wareham swept and reverse-swept Kerr for 4, 2, 4 and 6 to give RCB 199 with her scintillating 31 not out off 10 that helped them collect 65 off the last four.

MI’s opening woes continued as Kerr again failed to put on a decent score. While Matthews got going with spectacular hits off Perry, Kerr faced just nine balls in the first 30. Sneh Rana snared the two openers in consecutive overs when she had Matthews hole out to deep square leg and Kerr sky one towards cover for 9.

MI needed a big lift from 45 for 2 in the powerplay. Harmanpreet survived an lbw appeal and review from WPL debutant Heather Graham and found the gaps with two confident boundaries. But Mandhana brought back the wily Kim Garth and she foxed the MI captain with a back-of-the-hand legcutter that drew an edge which was pouched nicely by Ghosh.

Needing 71 to get from 31 from there was a tall ask for MI but their lower order didn’t give up. The charge was led by the hard-hitting Sajeevan Sanjana mainly at the end after the wickets of Yastika Bhatia, Amanjot and G Kamalini. With 44 to win from 12, Sajana packed some power against Garth’s slower ones and then with 24 to get from five, she hammered Perry in the ‘V’ down the ground for two sixes. She missed the next ball and then miscued one to be dismissed for 23 off 12 and MI fell short.

Brief scores:

Royal Challengers Bengaluru Women 199 for 3 in 20 overs (Sabbhineni Meghana 26, Smriti Mandhana 53, Ellyse Perry 49*, Richa Ghosh 36, Georgia Wareham 31*; Hayley Matthews 2-37, Amelia Kerr 1-47) beat Mumbai Indians Women 188 for 9 in 20 overs (Nat Sciver-Brunt 69, Hayley Mathtews 19, Harmanpreet Kaur 20, Amanjot Kaur 17,  Sajeevan Sajana 23, Sanskriti Gupta 10; Kim Garth 2-33, Ellyse Perry 2-53, Sneh Rana 3-26, Heather Graham 1-47, Georgia Wareham 1-49) by 11 runs

[Cricinfo]