Ellyse Perry exhibited a sensational performance with bat and ball, powering Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to crush Mumbai Indians (MI) by 7 wickets. RCB sailed into the playoffs with a dominating and first-ever win over MI. RCB will again battle against MI in the Eliminator on Friday, March 15 to seal a spot in the WPL finals. Although RCB lost a few early wickets while chasing a target of 114, Perry and Richa Ghosh played brilliant knocks of unbeaten 40 and 36 respectively to secure a much-needed win. Earlier, Perry scripted history with her incredible spell, the Australian all-rounder became the first cricketer to take six wickets in the cash-rich league.

Earlier in the day, RCB skipper Smriti Mandhana decided to bowl first, and Perry’s outstanding figure of 6/15 vindicated her decision. Hayley Matthews and Sajeevan Sajana gave MI a quick start with the bat, adding 43 runs in the powerplay overs. But Sophie Devine produced the breakthrough in the final ball of the powerplay, dismissing Matthews (26). From thereon, it was Perry’s show as she ran through the star-studded batting line-up of the defending champions.

In the 9th over, the right-arm medium-pacer gave MI a double blow, cleaning up Sajana (30) and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur for a golden duck. In her next over, she dismissed Amelia Kerr and Amanjot Kaur to put great pressure on MI. Perry’s magical spell left the MI batting unit in big trouble as they lost seven wickets before even reaching the 100-run mark. MI managed to reach 113, giving their bowlers something to defend.

MI bowlers started well as they picked up three quick wickets in successive overs. Nat Sciver-Brunt got the better of Mandhana while Matthews scalped Sophie Molineux. Shabnim Ismail then bowled an absolute ripper to bowl out Devine. But in the 9th over, Sciver-Brunt dropped an easy straight-forward catch for Ghosh at the mid-wicket and that cost them the match.