🏏WPL 2026: Match 16: RCB W vs MI W at Vadodara on 26/01/26🏏 - Page 14

19.4

6

Amelia Kerr to Richa Ghosh, SIX, oh my! Richa is down on the ground but the ball has sailed over the rope. She comes down the track, Kerr floats it up outside off, makes Richa reach it and she gets it off the middle even though she's off-balance,

19.3

6

Amelia Kerr to Richa Ghosh, SIX, but Richa keeps going. Once again dances down the pitch, gets to the pitch of the flighted delivery and pumps it flat over long-off. She packs a lot of power when she hits them

19.3 Amelia Kerr to Ghosh, SIX runs

Floated up into the slot outside off. Ghosh sets up a very solid base and smokes it over long off!

19.4 Amelia Kerr to Ghosh, SIX runs

Flighted up full and wide, and Ghosh is tearing Kerr apart here. Walks down, takes it on the full and carves it over extra cover!

I was actually praying for a noball in last over

Richa girl 🙇🏻‍♀️

RCB Women Innings

19.6 Amelia Kerr to Ghosh, OUT

A shank to finish the innings, and Ghosh and RCB fall short!

Richa Ghosh c Khemnar b Kerr 90 (50b 10x4 6x6) SR: 180

lol it felt like MI was gonna lose

19.6 Amelia Kerr to Ghosh, OUT

A shank to finish the innings, and Ghosh and RCB fall short!

Richa Ghosh c Khemnar b Kerr 90 (50b 10x4 6x6) SR: 180

Gosh didnt let rcbw to lose by margin. Good inning.

KUDOS to Richa!! She was a lone warrior fighting for the team! Her innings have reduced the impact on the net run rate for RCB even though they have already qualified!

Richa hit 10 fours, and 6 sixers with a strike rate of 180!

Congratulations to MI for their much-needed win today.

Phew. What a breathless end to that contest. MI were so far ahead of the game and yet, they could only win by 15 runs. And that was all down to Ghosh, who thrilled everyone with a brazenly powerful display of ball-striking. She fell short, as did her side, but it was not for a lack of trying, at least from her.

Apart from those last two overs, it was a commanding performance from Mumbai Indians. In a must-win encounter, their senior players stood tall and delivered when it mattered most. Nat Sciver-Brunt led the charge with the first ever WPL hundred, before Hayley Matthews and Shabnim Ismail ripped through the RCB top order, claiming the first five wickets to set up a 15-run victory. RCB were already on the back foot after a punishing bowling effort, and the chase unravelled rapidly in the powerplay as they lost half their side. There was a fightback through Richa Ghosh, Nadine de Klerk and Arundhati Reddy, with Richa battling till the end and scoring 35 runs in the last two overs, but the task proved far too steep. After winning their first five games, RCB have now suffered back-to-back losses and will need to regroup quickly to ensure their final league match doesn’t make it three defeats on the bounce. For Mumbai Indians, this was the perfect response - a big score on the board, wickets up front, and some outstanding fielding. Just the final two overs got away from them. But still it’s a confidence-boosting win that keeps their campaign alive and gives them vital momentum heading into the final league fixture.

Hayley Matthews:

We obviously did really well to get to that 200 score. Kudos to Nat, obviously, the way she batted. But I think it was really good for us to keep wickets in hand until later on and then be able to accelerate, which we executed perfectly. With the bowling, I think we started really well. Shabnim's been great at the top, as always and throughout the middle. Obviously it got away a little bit at the end, but with someone like Richa at the crease, you always know you’re up against someone dangerous towards the end. I’ve felt pretty good at the crease in the first few matches I’ve played, but I wasn’t able to get the scores that I wanted. So I was just really happy to get some numbers on the board today. I think here specifically, the wicket does tend to change a bit as the innings goes on. The first six to ten overs are usually a bit hard. But with our short side, we figured that once we got to around 70 or 80 in the first ten, we could really push hard in the second ten and get 100-plus. It was about reading the bowlers and our options really well and targeting that short side. We were also able to find boundaries from both ends. I was aware of the other hundred, but it’s been pretty good batting with Nat. I feel like we have a really good relationship at the crease. She flows pretty easily, which makes it easier for me as well. Once we both got set, we just spoke about which bowlers we wanted to target and went at it. That was a very nice catch
(Rahila's catch to dismiss Voll). She’s come in after Kamalini has gone and has really stepped up from the first match to the last. She’s taken one or two behind the stumps, and today was another great example of how good she is as a keeper. But also, when you hear her talking in the dressing room, she seems like a real leader, someone who knows what she’s doing. It’s great to have her in the squad, and she looks confident and ready out there. Coming up against Grace and Smriti is never really much of a worry anyway. I was pretty happy when Grace got out early and then I could come in and focus on the later stages a bit more.