Beyond the headlines: Kerr's 20th, MI's fielding, & Rana's misuse!
Beyond the headlines; MI v/s RCB, Game 19 of the WPL
RCB beat MI by 11 runs. Smriti Mandhana (53 off 37) finally found some form, while Richa Ghosh (36 off 22) & Georgia Wareham (31 off 10) added a death over flourish. MI nearly chased down the required 200-total, but lost too many wickets.
But, what happened beyond the headlines?
MI were right to bowl Amelia Kerr in the 20th (despite conceding 21 runs), MI’s fielding has taken a sudden dip, Smriti Mandhana plays much better alongside S Meghana, & RCB probably should’ve played Sneh Rana more.
MI were right to bowl Kerr in the 20th over
Written by Shayan Ahmad Khan. You can follow him on Twitter.
Amelia Kerr went for 47 runs in her 3 overs tonight, including 21 runs in the 20th over. But, despite the eventual result, MI probably made the correct decision to give the Kiwi the final over.
Kerr is the third-most experienced 20th over bowler in the three seasons of the WPL. Only Jess Jonassen and Sophie Ecclestone had bowled more overs than her before tonight. Kerr has only conceded double digits once (14 v DC in Bengaluru last year) in the 20th over, and went for 7 runs or less in the other 5 matches.
Additionally, of all bowlers that have at least three 20th overs under their belt, only Sophie Molineux has a better economy rate – and she bowled half the overs Kerr had. As a cherry on top, no batter had hit a 6 off her in the final over before Georgia Wareham did on the RCB’s last ball.
Even in tonight’s game, she bounced back from a bad first over (conceding 22 runs). In her second over, she conceded only 3 runs, and picked up the wicket of Smriti Mandhana (after both her and Ellyse Perry had been dropped earlier in the over!).
Additionally, RCB’s batters have historically been better against pace. That pattern continued tonight, as they scored scored 15 runs in the 17th (v Shabnim Ismail), 11 runs in the 18th (v Hayley Matthews), and 18 runs in the 19th (v Amanjot Kaur).
Before tonight’s fixture, WPL pacers had an economy rate of 8.59 vs RCB in 2025. Tonight, MI’s quicks conceded 84 runs in 10 overs including the death overs flourish, but did not take any wickets.
Who were MI’s other options? Nat Sciver-Brunt had conceded 16 runs in her 2 overs, while Sanskriti Gupta and Parunika Sisodia had overs left as well. The Indian spinners had never bowled in that stage of the game, while Sciver-Brunt had only bowled once and conceded 16 runs (2023 WPL final, on tonight’s ground).
Giving Amelia Kerr the final over was a decision backed by experience and data, regardless of how it went.
Data from Cricmetric & ESPNcricinfo.
Will MI’s poor fielding cost them in the playoffs?
Written by Ritwika Dhar. You can follow her on Twitter.
MI’s fielding at Brabourne has been a major issue this season. In yesterday's match against GG, they dropped 4 catches including Bharti Fulmali, who was on 2 at the time. Fulmali eventually scored a match-changing 61 (25), preventing MI from securing a spot in the final.
MI’s fielding woes continued tonight, with another 4 catches dropped. In the 12th over, Ellyse Perry was dropped by Amelia Kerr on 16 (and would score 49*) and Smriti Mandhana was dropped by Sanskriti Gupta (though she would get out one ball later). There were also two misfields at the boundary during the game, one by Matthews and another by Ismail, both of which resulted in boundaries.
In the last over, MI’s aggressive fielding cost them further as Amanjot Kaur and S Sajana both attempted diving catches that resulted in boundaries. Known for her aggressive fielding, Amanjot couldn’t hold on to three diving chances today - off Meghana (1.3), Richa Ghosh (15.5), and Wareham (19.3).
To make matters worse, Nat Sciver-Brunt also missed a simple chance in the 19th over to dismiss Perry. These dropped catches resulted in a 46 off 16 partnership between Perry and Georgia Wareham in the death overs that took RCB to 199.
The recurring issue in these dropped catches seemed to be the floodlights at Brabourne, which caused problems for Sanskriti Gupta, Amanjot Kaur, and Nat Sciver-Brunt. In 2023, MI had also dropped 3 catches at Brabourne, including 2 in the final against DC.
This season, MI have already dropped 8 catches in just 2 matches at Brabourne, compared to only 2 dropped catches in 6 matches across 3 venues earlier.
Meanwhile, RCB showcased excellent fielding tonight, holding onto all 8 chances tonight, including the crucial (and highly difficult) one of Sciver-Brunt in the 15th over.
The old adage, “catches win you matches,” came back to haunt MI. Their fielding lapses proved costly, as they fell short by just 11 runs - missing yet another opportunity to secure a direct spot in the final.
Data from ESPNcricinfo.
Smriti has missed Sabbhineni in 2025
Written by Tarutr Malhotra.
Sabbhineni Meghana has been a revelation since returning to the RCB batting order in the last 2 games. She scored 53 runs in 25 balls against UPW & MI combined, giving her a late lead for the highest strike rate (212.00) in the WPL!
However, beyond the quick and aggressive starts she’s given RCB, her impact on Smriti Mandhana can’t be understated. For the first time since Game 3, the RCB skipper managed to score more than 10 runs in an innings - and it isn’t a fluke.
Mandhana has struggled with run rate pressure this season. It’s not surprising that her one good innings - the 81 (47) against DC in Game 2 - came when RCB had to chase down just 141. She’s rushed her shots, and come down the track too often to find an angle, only to get out. Ironically, it’s how she got out today too, as the runs dried up in the middle overs.
However, with Meghana going all guns blazing from ball one in the powerplay, Mandhana has been able to play her natural waiting game. Funnily enough, when she’s not worried about pushing the pace - she pushes the pace!
In the 6 games before Meghana was reintroduced into the RCB XI, Mandhana averaged 23.33 at a SR of 135.92 (both numbers are heavily skewed by that DC innings). In the last 2 games with Meghana, that’s gone up to 28.5 and 139.02.
Mandhana’s SR goes up further to 146.15 when you only consider balls faced while Meghana’s on the other end (as opposed to the 28.5 ave. & 139.02 SR in games where Meghana is playing, regardless of if they’re in a partnership).
And, this isn’t a new revelation. Mandhana’s and Meghana’s numbers were similarly co-related during RCB’s successful 2024 campaign. When in the middle with Meghana, Mandhana scored at 165.38 compared to her regular SR of 133.92!
RCB went star-hunting this off-season, and brought back Danni Wyatt-Hodge. She’s a fine opener, but it created more continuity problems after RCB already lost multiple key championship players to injury.
Data from ESPNcricinfo & the official WPL website.
Should RCB have trusted Sneh Rana more?
Written by Shayan Ahmad Khan. You can follow him on Twitter.
Shreyanka Patil was a huge catalyst for RCB’s success last year. The off-spinning all-rounder picked up 14 wickets in 8 games at an economy rate of 7.30 and a strike rate of only 9.9. Her absence to injury was a huge blow for RCB this season, but her replacement was signed quickly.
RCB replaced her with Sneh Rana after Game 1, but benched her for the first two games she could have played. In the 5 matches she did play, Rana only completed her 4-over quota twice (including tonight).
Rana debuted in Game 4 against UPW, and made an instant impact with 3 wickets. She was also their most economical bowler against GG in Game 5, going for just 5.75 in 4 overs as RCB conceded at a rate of 7.63.
In both these games, she bowled in the powerplay – 1/7 in 1 over vs UPW and 0/7 in 2 overs vs GG. Despite that, she didn’t get an opportunity to bowl in this phase in the next two games.
Other than Renuka Singh, RCB’s bowlers have not been impactful in the first 6 overs, conceding too many runs and not picking up enough wickets. When Rana got another powerplay chance tonight, she picked up the wickets of the dangerous Hayley Matthews and Amelia Kerr (2/9 in 2 overs). In all, she ended up with figures of 3-26.
Perhaps the best example of RCB not trusting her enough was Game 7 against UPW. Rana conceded 13 runs in the 11th over, on a day RCB conceded a WPL record 225/5 (at least partly due to poor fielding strategies for their spinners). She was not given another over, and instead made up for it with the bat by scoring 26 off just 6 balls and nearly helping RCB chase down the impossible.
In the absence of an impactful bowling all-rounder like Shreyanka Patil, perhaps RCB should have trusted Sneh Rana more.
Data from Cricmetric & ESPNcricinfo.