Hayley Matthews condems RCB to another heavy defeat

Hayley Matthews starred with the bat and ball as Mumbai Indians hammered Royal Challengers Bangalore by nine wickets at the Brabourne Stadium. It was MI's second consecutive win while RCB are yet to get off the mark after two games.

So how good was Hayley Matthews?

Opened the bowling and picked 3-28. Then opened the batting and scored 77* off 38 balls. Yes, that good.

Matthews was unbelievable in the PowerPlay with the ball, coming back from an 11-run opening over to pick two wickets in her second. Brought back into the attack for RCB captain Smriti Mandhana, she did exactly what was expected of her: deceive the batter with a loopy delivery. Mandhana simply sliced the inside-out loft to cover, falling once again to offspin. And then, Heather Knight was bowled next ball, getting beaten by the turn on the inside-edge. Matthews' third wicket was a well-set Richa Ghosh (28 off 26), setting up RCB's 155 all out.

So how did RCB's start turn pear-shaped?

You already know that Hayley picked two wickets in an over inside the PowerPlay but that came after Saika Ishaque's double-wicket over that saw the backs of Sophie Devine and Disha Kasat. Those two back-to-back overs meant that RCB lost four wickets in the space of eight balls, going from 39/0 to 43/4 in a matter of minutes. Kanika Ahuja (22 off 13), Shreyanka Patil (23 off 15) and Megan Schutt (20 off 14) chipped in with cameos later to take RCB to 155 but that the opening stand of 39 was the highest partnership of the innings tells you all that you need to know. Amelia Kerr picked two wickets as RCB went on to be bowled out for only 155 in 18.4 overs.

Now turn to look at Matthews, the batter

Matthews's first boundary was not quite off the middle of the bat but from thereon, most shots that she hit were. She really didn't get going until the fifth over, when she hit a six and a four off Preeti Bose. It was the same over when she lost her opening partner Yastika Bhatiya (23 off 19) but in walked Nat Sciver-Brunt with whom Matthews would go on to add unbeaten 114 runs for the second wicket. The opening batter brought up a half-century off 26 balls, and went on to hit 13 fours and a six during the course of an emphatic innings.

Nat Sciver-Brunt not far behind

Nat Sciver got going with three boundaries against Shreyanka Patil in the eighth over and when runs started coming at the rate of knots from both ends, that was it for RCB. There was no catching up from there. Nat, who had earlier chipped in with bowling figures of 1-34, scored 55* off 29, hitting 9 fours and a six. Shreyanka Patil had a forgettable night, conceding 32 runs in her two overs but experienced Megan Schutt (3-0-32-0) wasn't too far behind as well on a very good batting pitch.

Brief Scores: RCB155 in 18.4 overs (Ghosh 28; Matthews 3-28) lost to MI159/1 in 14.2 overs (Matthews 77*, Nat Sciver-Brunt 55*) by 9 wickets