MATCH STORIES
Follow UsRoyal Challengers Bangalore desperately need a win.
You have a look at that squad, and chances are that you know who to turn to when you have your backs against the wall - Ellyse Perry. She’s the one-stop solution to all your needs, be it batting, bowling, or even saving the toughest of boundaries with ease.
She’s a cheat code - one that doesn’t have an expiry.
Over the last year, she’s gone back to being built differently — be it her game against spin, her power-hitting, or her ability to understand the changing demands of the format. In terms of evolving, or rather adapting to the needs of the time, Perry is second to none.
Smriti Mandhana knew this. She has been on the receiving end of Perry’s prowess for the longest time, but when RCB needed a divine intervention, she knew that Perry was her go-to player. Across the last two editions of the WPL till today (March 12), the all-rounder had bowled 29.2 overs, picking up just four wickets.
Her best-ever figures in the competition came against the UP Warriorz, where she ended with figures of 3/16. But this season, her role has been quite limited; she has just been a filler with the ball, bowling just four overs.
Just four overs in the entire competition across six games.
There wasn’t any historical evidence from the tournament to suggest that Mumbai had to prepare extensively for her threat.
At 65/1, Mumbai Indians were in the best possible place. All they had to do was post a big total. With Nat Sciver-Brunt and Sajana at the crease, it felt like the seeds were planted. Except that those exact seeds were burnt and burnt from their roots by Perry in a spell that has never been seen before at the WPL.
Mere mortals can only think of such a spell in their wildest dreams.
But Perry does it when her team needs it the most.
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Backs against the wall, Mandhana searches for a solution, and then comes the fire.
Perry lands the best possible delivery, just enough movement past the inside edge of the smashing Sajana to disturb the timber. There is no evident celebration. She knows that her work has just begun.
65/1 turned 65/2.
Next in is Harmanpreet Kaur, a swashbuckling batter who tends to have a wild drive at the start of her innings, something that has cost her heavily a few times. Perry knows this. So she floats one wide up the alley, asking the in-form batter to drive on a slightly tricky wicket.
If Harman’s last few balls in this competition are signs of anything - she scored 47 off her last 14 balls against GG - she is GOING TO DESTROY.
But today is a different day. And in front of her is a completely different bowler, who is too hot to handle.
And so the result is also different: T-I-M-B-E-R.
65/3, Mumbai continue to tumble.
Amelia Kerr and Nat Sciver-Brunt have a task in hand. And it’s the toughest of them all: handling a red-hot Perry.
Kerr survives Perry’s hat-trick ball, and then keeps out three more balls bowled by leggie Georgie Wareham.
But the fourth ball faced by Kerr, her second against Perry, zips past her and absolutely raps her right in front. You could have given Kerr a few more seconds of reaction time, but even then she wouldn’t have accounted for that movement.
65/1 has now turned into 69/4. One wicket has turned into three for Perry. Magical things are happening. RCB know, the fans know, and more importantly, the skipper knows that this spell might just be the best thing to happen to the franchise in the last two years of WPL - magic, they believed.
Perry has already cut through world-class batters, so Amanjot Kaur wasn’t going to be a big deal. Perry thinks that this is going to be child’s play, but after Amanjot smashes her for a four, she knows the task isn't going to be straightforward.
And so she brings out her best weapon on the night - the ball that seams in. It seams in and leaves the right-hander aghast. Amanjot can look at the pitch a thousand times, but even then, chances are that she might be as bamboozled as she is right now.
How does this ball do such magical stuff at the Arun Jaitley Stadium?
You know, a pitch that is known to be spin-friendly. A pitch where plenty of balls have turned tonight? Perry’s bowling like this on this wicket; oh man, she’s just different.
Pooja Vastrakar is happy to be part of history. She ends up contributing to it with a heave, a heave that even heaven wouldn’t have accepted; it is wild.
MI 81/6; Perry 5/14.
That’s it. This is already the performance of the year. This is already a hella fire performance. But then, in Perry’s eyes, it’s not quite ‘Hall of Fame’ yet.
So she does the most Perry thing of all time, picking up a sixth wicket. Never before in the history of the WPL has anyone picked up six, forget in a near knock-out game.
6-erry. Perry. Merry. Mumbai could only take a ferry.
It is almost similar to ordering a Piri-Piri dish at a restaurant; you know it is going to be spicy, but it rarely will take your head off, like how Perry did today.
Piri-Piri might have originated from Zambia, Uganda, Malawi, and Zimbabwe, but the real Perry-Perry that caused a Mumbai melt-down was born in Wahroonga, a suburb in the Upper North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales.
Too hot to handle.
