🏏WPL 2026: Match 1: MIW vs RCBW at Navi Mumbai on 09/01/26🏏- Page 9

50+ runs & four+ wickets in a WPL match

Deepti Sharma 59 & 4/19 UPW vs DC Delhi 2024

Nadine de Klerk 63* & 4/26 RCB vs MI Navi Mumbai 2026

Harmanpreet Kaur: Well, we know that she (de Klerk) has the capacity to score whatever runs are needed in the last over. But yeah, I think we just didn’t bowl one good ball, which was needed in the last over. Sometimes this happens. We gave her two or three chances and when you keep giving a batter chances, they always come back with an even stronger mindset. So yeah, we can’t say the last over didn’t go our way - we got a few chances, but we missed them. (what they could have done differently?) I think one good ball in the last over - that’s all. Otherwise, I think we were in the game. We did everything that was needed to win this match, but except for that last over. If we could have bowled one good ball, we could have won the match. Well, in the WPL, we always get matches like this.

And we know that if we keep thinking about this game, it’s not going to help us tomorrow. So I think we just need to learn from this match and think about how we can do better in the next one. Yeah, in the first innings, I think we didn’t get a good start in the powerplay. Hopefully, in the next match, we’ll sit together and discuss how we want to go about it. Initially, it wasn’t that easy to bat on this pitch. Later on, it kept getting better and better. Now we know the pitch, we know how the conditions are going to be and hopefully in the next match we’ll execute better.

Phew! RCB were down and out at 65/5. They were down and out when Arundhati fell straight after the 16th over time-out. They were down and out when the equation became 29 off 12. They were down and out again when 18 was needed from the final over. But one thing we’ve learnt lately - when Nadine de Klerk is at the crease, no equation is impossible. Grace Harris and Smriti Mandhana gave RCB a flying start, but once that opening stand was broken, the innings lost its way. With half the side back in the pavilion, MI were firmly on top. De Klerk and Arundhati then rebuilt with a crucial 50-run partnership, but Arundhati’s dismissal in the 17th over left it all on de Klerk’s shoulders. Prema Rawat chipped in with a couple of handy boundaries, but the chase was all about de Klerk. Calm, calculated and brutally powerful, she carried RCB over the line. MI will rue the dropped chances off her in the 19th over - opportunities that could have sealed the game, but slipped through the hands of experienced campaigners like Sciver-Brunt and Kerr under pressure. Stay tuned for the presentations..

Chalo, RCB has posted a satisfactory 2 points at the inception. Let's hope this run continues for them!

Good luck for the next game, MI!

https://www.instagram.com/p/DTTHN_SjDOc/

Today's star is Nadine de Klerk

Contribution with both the bat and the ball!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTTIQCRFwSI/