Bengaluru, Feb 21 (PTI) Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and Amanjot Kaur steered Mumbai Indians to a thrilling four-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru in a Women’s Premier League match here on Friday.

Ellyse Perry struck a fine half-century to guide RCB to a competitive 167 for seven after being sent in to bat.

Perry made 81 off just 43 balls with the help of 11 fours and two sixes to lift RCB after they were stuttering at 57 for 4 at one time.

Richa Ghosh (28 off 25) and skipper Smriti Mandhana (26 off 13 balls) also chipped in for RCB.

Medium pacer Amanjot was the most successful bowler for MI with figures of 3/22.

Chasing a competitive total, MI’s Harmanpreet (50 off 38 balls, 8x4s, 1×6)), Nat Sciver-Brunt (42 off 21; 9x4s) and Amanjot (34 off 27; 2x4s, 2x6s) made useful contributions to guide the team home with just one ball remaining.

MI lost Yastika Bhatia early but Hayley Matthews and Sciver-Brunt shared 55 runs for the second wicket to take the 2023 WPL champions’ chase forward.

Matthews made 15 off 10 balls before being trapped in front of the wicket by left-arm bowler Ekta Bisht.

Sciver-Brunt made 42 off 21 balls before she was cleaned up by Kim Garth.

Harmanpreet then joined forces with Amanjot after the dismissal of Amelia Kerr to take MI forward.

The pair shared 52 runs for the fifth wicket to keep MI in the hunt before the former sneaked a Georgia Wareham delivery to Richa Ghosh behind the stumps.

Wareham then accounted for Sajeevan Sajana with the next delivery to make matters difficult for MI.

Amanjot, however, was going great guns as she hit off-spinner Kanika Ahuja for two sixes in the penultimate over — one off the first ball and later off the last delivery — to bring down the equation to a run a ball in the final over.

With Amanjot steady on one side, G Kamalini got MI home, hitting a boundary off Ekta Bisht to hand MI their first win over the defending champions in three attempts. PTI

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