New Delhi, March 16 (HS). The Mumbai Indians team was eliminated from the Women's Premier League (WPL) tournament after a 5-run defeat at the hands of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the eliminator match on Friday. Mumbai captain Harmanpreet Kaur believes that her wicket was the turning point of the match, due to which the team lost. Mumbai were in the driving seat while chasing 136 when they needed 16 runs from 13 balls with Harmanpreet and Amelia Kerr with seven wickets in hand. But once Harmanpreet was out to long-on at the end of the 18th over, the rest of Mumbai's line-up failed to score the remaining runs and lost the match by 5 runs.
Harmanpreet said after the match, “We needed only one boundary in 12 balls and we could not achieve it. This game always teaches you this. It puts you under pressure and you have to keep learning from it. After we lost our wicket, our batsmen could not maintain their composure, that was the turning point.”
Mumbai had restricted RCB to 135 runs, which was not a difficult target, especially when Mumbai were 60 for 2 in the first 10 overs and needed 76 runs from 60. After Nat Sciver-Brunt was dismissed in the 11th over, Harmanpreet and Kerr took over the innings, building a steady 52-run partnership to take Mumbai to an easy win. When the team needed 20 runs from 18 balls, Harmanpreet escaped stumping off Shreyanka Patil when Richa Ghosh failed to catch the ball cleanly. But after just five balls, Patil got Harmanpreet caught by Sophie Devine at long on.
Harmanpreet said, “We fought really hard. This season has been a bit of an ups and downs for us. Last season we did really well as a team but this time our performance was a bit up-and-down. But we have learned a lot this season and hopefully next season we will prepare really well and bounce back.”
However, Harmanpreet praised Sajna, who led the team to victory on the last ball against Delhi Capitals by hitting a brilliant six on her first ball of the WPL in the opening game of the season.
Harmanpreet said, “During this tournament we got SS (Sajna), she is a player who can hit the ball very hard and that is what we want WPL to produce more young players and it is good to see that the young The girls are coming and giving their 100%.”