MI vs RCB highlights, WPL 2026: With 20 runs off final 4 balls, Nadine de Klerk helps RCB win by 3 wickets

Harmanpreet Kaur, Mumbai Indians captain, speaks after the three-wicket defeat. She repeatedly says that one good ball in the final over would have been enough for them to win.

"We know she (Nadine de Klerk) has that much capacity to score whatever runs are needed in the last over. We just did not bowl one good ball. This happens. We gave her chances and sometimes, batters come with strong mindset. We missed those chances. We did everything to win this game but in the last over, if we could've bowled one good ball, we could have won the match."

Mumbai Indians play their second game tomorrow. talking about the quick turnaround to tomorrow's game, Harman says: "In WPL, we always get matches like that. If we stay in this game, it will not help us tomorrow. We need to think what better we can do in the next match."

Talking about the first innings, she says: "We did not get a good start in the powerplay. Hopefully in the next match, we can sit and discuss how to go about it. It (the pitch) was not easy to bat but it kept getting better and better."

WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE MIDDLE ON THE OPENING NIGHT OF THE WPL!!!

On the first ball of the 19th over from Shabnim Ismail, Nat Sciver-Brunt drops Nadine de Klerk at long off. De Klerk hits a boundary on the second ball.

On the fourth ball, de Klerk hits the ball at Kerr who is at deep mid wicket and drops it. Then, as the RCB batters run two, the fielder throws the ball at Kamalini who knocks off the bails, but wait! The ball is not in her gloves when she does so! So third reprieve in four balls for De Klerk!

And on the final ball, there is --- of course! --- another boundary.

RCB need 18 runs to win off the final over.

The timeout has a devastating effect on Royal Challengers Bengaluru as Arundhati Reddy's luck finally runs out. She departs for 20 as the dangerous partnership ends. Amelie Kerr catches the ball at deep midwicket and stops inches away from the boundary ropes. What a catch! And it's Nicola Carey who gets her first wicket of the night.

RCB needed 38 runs needed off 24 balls with five wickets in hand heading into the timeout. But now they have one wicket less.

Arundhati Reddy c Kerr b Carey 20 (25b 2x4 0x6) SR: 80

Another wicket gone for Royal Challengers Bengaluru. HANG ON! Arundhati Reddy reviews, and gets let off!

Amelie Kerr hoodwinks Reddy and the ball clips the pads, the umpire immediately raises the finger. Reddy refers almost in blind hope.

The original decision from the on-field umpire is out. And the third umpire, after seeing ball tracking has to ask her to reverse the decision since the ball was missing the stumps.

After 12, RCB are 82/5

Amelie Kerr, who had a horrible stay in the middle with the bat, starts off with a dream delivery to Radha Yadav, rattling the RCB batter's stumps on her first ball of the day. A regular googly that clips the bails.

Just a couple of overs back they were 40/0 with Grace Harris and Smriti Mandhana on a roll! But that's a long time ago! RCB are 63/4 right now.

Radha Yadav b Kerr 1 (2b 0x4 0x6) SR: 50

So after Mumbai's Sajana rode her luck to get two dropped catches before she exploded with a 25-ball 45 in the first innings, RCB gets two slices of luck as well.

First, on the 4th ball of the 6th over, Ishaque drops Richa Ghosh at mid on. And then, right on the next ball, Hemalatha hits the ball straight in front of Nicola Carey, where the ball bounces right in front of her as the replays show.

And just to rub salt in the wounds, RCB get a boundary on the final ball.

RCB end the powerplay overs with 57/2

What a difference four balls can make! Shabnim Ismail manages to bowl four dot balls in a row, and despite the score reading 40/0 after 3.4 overs, RCB captain Smriti Mandhana tries to smash the ball to the boundary ropes. But she can only get the top edge and is caught. Did she need to play that shot, given the situation they were in?

Smriti Mandhana c Khemnar b Ismail 18 (13b 4x4 0x6) SR: 138.46

And Ismail ends the over with a single. So just one run and a wicket in that over! IS this the start of a turnaround for Mumbai Indians?

Shabnam Ismail handed the ball for the second over by Mumbai. And it takes two balls for Shabnam Ismail to take the pace off the ball to try and hoodwink Grace Harris. The Australian does get outfoxed by the pace on the second ball, but she comes back by bludgeoning the third ball past the mid-off fielder four a boundary.

Both Mandhana and Harris are trading boundaries here. the Australian hits one, then the Indian follows suit.

After two overs, RCB are 20/0 in chase of 155-run target

So a quiet end for Mumbai Indians are both the set batters --- Sajeevan Sajana (45 off 25 balls) and Nicola Carey (40 off 29 balls) --- depart in the final over as they set a target of 155 runs for Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

RCB need 155 runs to win the WPL 2026 opener against the Mumbai Indians. Stay tuned we'll be back with RCB's response shortly.

Sajana is on the heels of a half century and Mumbai Indians are on the verge of breaching 150 runs. What a match-defining innings from Sajana here, who is muscling the ball to the ropes when needed but also finesse the ball to the ropes at other times.

RCB can field only field three players outside the circle for slow over rate.

After 19 overs, Mumbai are 149/4

Two more boundaries in the 16th over. Sajana is really twisting the knife into RCB's back with a 25-run knock off 14 balls. She's now hitting boundaries at will! Carey, with 21 off 19, is also in the middle.

After 16 overs, Mumbai Indians are 112/4

Two overs, two dropped chances from RCB. Sajana gets two lifelines in the span of two overs. In the first instance, she hits the ball at Hemalatha at short mid wicket, who drops a sitter. And when she is off the pitch getting some treatment, her replacement, Sayali Satghare, drops an even easier catch!

"It's like throwing the ball to the kids in the back garden," says the commentator.

You won't see easier catches than that being given to you.

After 14 overs, Mumbai Indians are 85/4

Another wicket, another wicket. Harman tried to smash the ball from Nadine de Klerk out of the part but ended up getting the faintest of edges which Richa Ghosh plucks out of thin air. What a catch, what a wicket for RCB!

Harman departs for 20 as Mumbai Indians slump to 67/4

Harmanpreet Kaur c †Ghosh b de Klerk 20 (17b 1x4 1x6) SR: 117.64

Three dot balls at the start of the over, and just when it looks like it would be another quiet over from Lauren Bell, Harmanpreet Kaur muscles the ball to the mid wicket boundary.

Mumbai bring in their 50 and it takes them 9 over to do so. And Lauren Bell completes her quota of four overs by giving away 14 runs and taking a wicket.

After nine overs, Mumbai are 52/2

DISASTER for Mumbai! Nat Sciver-Brunt departs, as Mumbai lose second wicket to slump to 35/2! Sciver-Brunt stepped out and tried to hit the ball, but missed it. The ball snuck behind the stumps, where Richa Ghosh whips off the bails just in time! Sciver-Brunt's leg was sliding back to the crease but the studs seem to be caught in to the pitch just before she could cross the crease. She was millimetres away from being safe! Cruel!

Nat Sciver-Brunt st †Ghosh b de Klerk 4 (3b 1x4 0x6) SR: 133.33

Mumbai are 35/2

Amelie Kerr's miserable stay in the middle comes to an end. She's dismissed for 4 runs after 15 balls. She tried to hit her way out of bad form, and ended up top edging the ball to the hands of Reddy! Mumbai Indians lose their first wicket!

Amelia Kerr c Reddy b Bell 4 (15b 0x4 0x6) SR: 26.66

It looked like it would be another tight over from Lauren Bell. But then there's a wide, and then, on the fourth ball, she strays wide which Kamalini slaps to the boundary to ease the pressure. But just when it looked like it would be a good over, Kerr ended up throwing away her wicket.

Lauren Bell still have Amelia Kerr's number. She manages to beat the Mumbai batter's blade's edge a couple more times in that over and keeps the defending champions to just one run in that over.

After 3 overs, Mumbai Indians are 11/0

RCB hand the ball to England international Lauren Bell.

For Mumbai Indians, Amelia Kerr will face the first ball while Gunalan Kamalini is at the non-striker's end.

The first ball from Bell angles away nicely from the blade of the bat. And Kerr responds by trying to pummel the second ball in the gap on the legside. But she misses. The third ball hits the pads and there's a loud shout. But it was clearly missing the stumps. And right after the third ball that nipped in, we have the fourth ball that shapes away from the outside edge. As does the fifth one.

Kerr has swung and missed four balls in that first over. She does catch the final ball in the middle of the bat, but it finds the fielder.

MAIDEN OVER FROM LAUREN BELL!

After one over, Mumbai Indians are 0/0.

Right, as we wait for this opening ceremony to wrap up so we can have some cricket, here are the two playing XIs.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru XI: Smriti Mandhana (capt), Grace Harris, D Hemalatha, Richa Ghosh, Radha Yadav, Nadine de Klerk, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Prema Rawat, Linsey Smith, Lauren Bell

Mumbai Indians XI: Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), G Kamalini, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Amelia Kerr, Amanjot Kaur, Nicola Carey, Poonam Khemnar, Shabnim Ismail, Sanskriti, S Sajana, Saika Ishaque

Mumbai Indians captain Harmanpreet Kaur says that Hayley Matthews is unwell and not playing today's game. Meanwhile, RCB is handing debuts to Grace Harris, Lauren Bell, Linsey Smith and Nadine de Klerk, who will be the four overseas players.

Mumbai Indians' Harmanpreet Kaur flips the coin. RCB skipper Smriti Mandhana calls heads, and heads it is! RCB will field first.

Smriti explains her call: "Dew plays huge factor at DY Patil."

Harman adds that she would have fielded first too if they had won the toss.

For ardent followers of Indian women’s cricket, Harmanpreet Kaur, the India batter, and Harmanpreet Kaur, Mumbai Indians batter in the Women’s Premier League (WPL), can come across as chalk and cheese. While she tends to bat with some restraint in India colours, the 36-year-old tends to cut loose a bit more in the league, where is the second-highest run-getter with 851 runs in 27 matches at a strike rate of 143.5.

Ahead of the fourth season starting on Friday, the MI captain said she hoped to bat a lot more freely without having to take too much pressure on herself.

“I think, as a batter, I want to bat freely. Because this is the only platform where I don’t put a lot of pressure on myself. Because this is something where I can execute myself, however I want. It’s a very important tournament for me, and I just want to contribute to my team as much as I can,” Harmanpreet said at the pre-tournament press conference on Thursday.

Just 68 days after India's famous World Cup triumph at DY Patil Stadium, Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana will walk out to the middle once more at the same venue in Navi Mumbai. This time, they will not be India teammates and trusted leadership partners. This time they will be opposing captains as the Women's Premier League starts from Friday with a clash between Harmanpreet-led Mumbai Indians and Mandhana's Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

The fourth edition of WPL promises to be more competitive than the previous versions, with teams having had the chance to reset at the mega auction. The league has already played a key role in elevating India’s top cricketers from competitors to winners but in the afterglow of becoming World Champions, the attention on Indian women’s cricket is bound to be higher than ever.

READ: In afterglow of World Cup triumph, Indian cricket will hope to unearth new gems, writes Vinayakk Mohanarangan

Former India cricketer Veda Krishnamurthy, who is an expert on JioHotstar, spoke about the impact of Ellyse Perry's absence on RCB this season:

"Ellyse Perry got that team together. You would see her running around the field, giving advice to the bowlers or Smriti when pressure built. She brought so much energy with her diving and catches. She created an aura in the squad. You cannot replace what she did. In every pressure situation, she was scoring for RCB. She scored more than 60% of the team's runs in three years, over 900 runs. She took them through wins and losses. One person cannot shoulder that. You can't ask Smriti to score all those runs. But the best that can be done is for Smriti to hold one end more. You also cannot replicate Perry's leadership. RCB will miss that. Smriti might miss having her watching over her shoulder on the field," Krishnamurthy said.

Ahead of the WPL 2026 season starting, RCB captain Smriti Mandhana, in a conversation with broadcasters JioHotstar, spoke about trying to bring her international batting form to the WPL: "I think the whole RCB squad is very balanced this season. We had a good mega auction. I always tell the team we have to focus on our work ethic. What happens on the field is not in our hands. But the way we have been batting for the last two years, I am sure we will continue that for RCB. I have also been batting well in the last two years and I want to bring that success from international cricket to the WPL. There is no better feeling than winning matches for your team, whichever team you play for. I am really looking forward to doing that."

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the first game of the Women's Premier League between defending champions Mumbai Indians take on 2023 winners Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

The former team is led by Harmanpreet Kaur, who also captained the Indian women's team to the World Cup title not too long ago, while RCB have Smriti Mandhana at the helm, who had been the India vice captain in that epoch-making campaign.