Mumbai Indians’ Harmanpreet Kaur cuts one during her half-century against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday.
DH PHOTO/ PUSHKAR V
Bengaluru: That Bengaluru loves its cricket is a redundant observation at this point but the crowd’s transformation from knowledgeable applauders during international cricket to raucous whistlers and howlers at the sight of players draped in the red, gold and black jersey of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru is jarring even if understandable.
While this has been the case for the longest time with the men’s team in the Indian Premier League, the women’s team lived on the residue for a while before earning their own followers. Now, however, things have evened out by the looks of it.
And just like that, the M Chinnaswamy Stadium welcomed the defending champions with a near-capacity attendance on Friday for the team’s first visit to the stadium in over a year.
To their dismay, a sentiment they’re used to maybe, they witnessed RCB lose out to Harmanpreet Kaur’s maturity and class. While you could sense the disappointment in their collective sigh after RCB lost by four wickets despite putting up a handy 167 for 7.
Surely, a sliver or more of respect must have gone out to what Nat Sciver-Brunt (42), Harmanpreet Kaur (50) and eventually Amanjot Kaur (34 n.o.) were able to achieve.
RCB must have known the perils of bowling second on the dew-laden Bengaluru in the evenings, but they had little choice in the matter because they lost the toss. This is perhaps why more than usual credit should go to Ellyse Perry for her calculated use of muscle and grace en route 81 from 43 balls.
This was the cornerstone on which RCB’s tidy 167 for 7 was built, but Smriti would have known that the score was going to be a tough one to defend, especially given the form RCB’s bowlers have been in our rather have showcased so far.
That said, they were rather good today, save for the number of wides they dished out. They weren’t all that clean with it at the start, mostly because they were bowling to Sciver-Brunt’s name and not her style of play.
Once they got rid of her, Harmanpreet took over and made batting look about as easy as a lazy lay on a Sunday. Pressure, it seemed, didn’t faze her one bit, but her dismissal for 50 left Mumbai dreaming up a new hero. Here is where Amanjot rose. With two big sixes and a couple of fours in a knock which lasted a hair-raising 27 balls, the game was done and Mumbai had won.