Mumbai Indians (MI) vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB)
Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai, March 11, 2025
What to anticipate: RCB look to finish on excessive
Mumbai Indians nearly secured a direct spot within the last on Monday. They wanted to maintain Gujarat Giants to 156 or fewer however a spirited Bharti Fulmali innings didn’t enable that. The possibility was missed however they won’t be worrying an excessive amount of: they not solely gained the match in opposition to Gujarat Giants and stored their excellent report on the Brabourne Stadium intact but in addition have yet another shot at ending on high of the desk. They’re on par with table-toppers Delhi Capitals on factors. The one level of concern, if in any respect any, can be that they must be again inside 24 hours to realize that.
Although the transfer to make Amelia Kerr open hasn’t made a lot of a distinction with the allrounder falling cheaply in each video games, MI will probably be comfortable Nat Sciver-Brunt didn’t should do the heavy lifting as soon as once more. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur made a fifty and there have been helpful contributions from the center order. Their bowlers have been glorious up entrance and although they misplaced the plot within the second half of the chase, they stored their cool to defend 179 on a batting-friendly floor.
RCB in the meantime will rue what might have been. The defending champions have been unfortunate with the toss in all 4 video games on the M Chinnaswamy Stadium which meant they needed to do the tough job of batting first on a floor the place seven out of eight matches have been gained by the chasing staff. They nonetheless had a tiny probability of constructing the playoffs which they let go of in a high-scoring thriller in opposition to UP Warriorz and at the moment are coming into this contest on the again of 5 consecutive losses.
RCB additionally had comparable points from begin to end, together with taking part in this season with a weakened bowling assault and relying on a few gamers to shoulder the majority of the accountability. Of their earlier match, it was the out-of-contention Warriorz who took RCB down with them, and now RCB will look to break MI’s probabilities of wanting to complete on high.
MI WWLWW (final 5 matches, most up-to-date first)
RCB LLLLL
MI are unlikely to vary their profitable mixture.
Mumbai Indians (possible XI): 1 Hayley Matthews, 2 Amelia Kerr, 3 Nat Sciver-Brunt, 4 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 5 Amanjot Kaur, 6 Yastika Bhatia (wk), 7 G Kamalini, 8 S Sajana, 9 Sanskriti Gupta, 10 Shabnim Ismail, 11 Parunika Sisodia
RCB made two adjustments for the earlier match, bringing in Charlie Dean for Danni Wyatt-Hodge and opener S Meghana for left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht. Whereas Dean had a troublesome outing, conceding 47 in her 4 overs of offspin, Meghana bought off to a speedy begin.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (possible XI): 1 Smriti Mandhana (capt), 2 S Meghana, 3 Ellyse Perry, 4 Raghvi Bisht, 5 Richa Ghosh (wk), 6 Kanika Ahuja, 7 Georgia Wareham, 8 Sneh Rana, 9 Charlie Dean, 10 Kim Garth, 11 Renuka Singh
Gamers to look at: Harmanpreet Kaur and Sneh Rana
Harmanpreet Kaur returning to kind is nice information for MI. Coming into the sport in opposition to Giants with scores of 4, 22 and 4*, she scored a vital 54 to energy her facet to 179. She has three fifties in 4 innings on the Brabourne Stadium in WPL and can need to benefit from the house benefit to safe a second title for her staff.
Performances just like the one she put up in opposition to UP Warriorz make one surprise why Sneh Rana is not within the T20 scheme of issues for India. Rana plundered Deepti Sharma for 25 off 5 balls, giving RCB a robust probability to search out 226 however she ran out of companions on the different finish with three balls left within the chase. In her first recreation for RCB this WPL, Rana returned with 3 for 27 however she has been underutilised with the ball on this version. She has bowled her full quota solely as soon as within the 4 video games. Rana final performed a T20I for India in 2023.
That is the second time within the WPL that RCB have misplaced 5 matches in a row, the final time being within the 2023 season
Source link
