Indians skipper Harmanpreet Kaur acknowledged that the batters couldn’t hold their nerve in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) eliminator on March 15 against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
Chasing 136, MI were in complete command with 16 needed of 13 balls and seven wickets in hand but eventually lost the game by 5 runs. The win propelled RCB to their maiden WPL final while defending champions MI crashed out of the tournament.
“We bowled really well to restrict them to under 140. Batting was also good but in the last 12 balls, we could not bat well. We just needed one boundary and we were not able to get it. That is what this game always teaches you. It puts you under pressure and you have to keep learning from it. When we lost my wicket, our batters could not hold their nerve, that was the turning point,” said Kaur at the post-match presentation.
WPL 2024, Eliminator: Heartbreak for MI as RCB clinch thriller to reach maiden final
The drama started when Kaur got out on the last ball of the 18th over, leaving MI with 16 to get in last two. Sophie Molineux then gave away just four runs in the penultimate over and got Sajeevan Sajana out as well. The MI skipper was full of praise of Sajana despite she not able to finish the job.
“She (Sajana) is someone who can hit the ball really hard, and that is what we want the WPL to do, to create more young players,” said Kaur about the youngster.
In the last over, MI couldn’t score 12 runs and just could manage six runs to lose the games.
“We fought really hard. This season was a little up and down. Last season we did really well. we learned a lot and hopefully next season, we can come back hard,” said Kaur.
RCB will now play Delhi Capitals in the WPL 2024 final on March 17.