Royal Challengers Bengaluru 157 for 7 (de Klerk 63*, Kerr 2-13) beat Mumbai Indians 154 for 6 (Sajana 45, Carey 40, de Klerk 4-26) by three wickets
That de Klerk pulled it off without Smriti Mandhana, Grace Harris or Richa Ghosh – all gone inside eight overs with RCB still needing 90 – made it even more sensational.
Needing 18 off the final over, de Klerk played out two dot balls, before going 6,4,6 to bring the equation down to 2 off 1. Then with the field in to save the single, she backed away to drill Nat Sciver-Brunt back over the bowler to clinch an improbable win.
De Klerk finished 63 not out along with her 4 for 26 to deliver an MVP performance that left the opponents shell shocked. Harmanpreet Kaur could only muster a wry smile that conveyed more than words could. For her, it was deja vu all over again.
MI’s late lapses and a golden contribution
Amid the chaos, Prema Rawat, not called upon to bowl a single over of legspin, still found a way to contribute, walloping two priceless boundaries, including one in the penultimate over, to finish 8 not out.
Kerr’s bouncebackability
She couldn’t lay bat on ball earlier in the game, but Kerr’s wickets of Radha Yadav and the dangerous Richa Ghosh in quick succession left RCB – playing a batter short – gasping at 65 for 5 in the eighth over. RCB’s fiery start – they hit seven fours and a six in the first three overs alone – courtesy Grace Harris and Smriti Mandhana, was suddenly being undone. It needed a 52-run partnership from de Klerk and Arundhati Reddy – who made 20 off 25 – to bring RCB’s chase back within the realms of possibility, before de Klerk cut loose.
Bell v Kerr: the contest that shaped the match
Lauren Bell set the tone early with a spell of high-class swing bowling. Kerr, opening in Hayley Matthews’ absence due to an illness, was beaten eight times in her first ten deliveries as she failed to combat Bell’s late outswing. She finally scraped off the mark only off her 11th ball.
Bell was trusted with a third over in the powerplay and she finished the job by sending back Kerr with a hard-length delivery she sliced to cover, making 4 off 15. Bell’s figures of 4-1-14-1 underlined just how much she had suffocated MI.
Kamalini briefly dazzled, as did Harmanpreet. If the short-arm jab in front of square off Bell was a teaser, the lofted inside-out hit over extra cover off Shreyanka Patil was blockbuster. The signs were ominous, but a hack off de Klerk saw Harmanpreet nick one to Richa Ghosh to leave MI 67 for 4 in 11 overs.
Sajana makes RCB pay
Promoted ahead of the more accomplished Amanjot Kaur, Sajana survived two chances in as many overs – first by D Hemalatha at midwicket, then by substitute Sayali Satghare at mid-off. At the other end, the pressure was mounting on debutant Nicola Carey, who limped to 14 off 14. MI needed to flick a switch, and Sajana did.
Radha’s left-arm spin was taken for 15 in the 15th over. Then, she clinically took down de Klerk when she returned for her third by using long levers and brute force to muscle big hits in the arc between long-on and deep midwicket for three fours. Overs 14-17 fetched MI 41, and they were back on the move.
Between them, Carey, all timing, and Sajana, gloriously agricultural, contributed 85 to ensure MI would make a match of it, which they did, only to be pipped at the finish line.
Shashank Kishore is a senior correspondent at ESPNcricinfo