Lauren Bell to Hayley Matthews, BEATEN! Nice comeback by Bell. Swings one away from the right-hander, full in length, outside off. Matthews is tempted to play the cover drive, but does not quite get to the pitch of the ball and misses to connect.
Lauren Bell to Hayley Matthews, FOUR! Top start! On a back of a length, on middle and leg. Matthews hangs back, waits on it and pulls it to deep square leg for a boundary.
All in readiness for Match 16 to get underway. The two umpires make their way out to the center. Now, Smriti Mandhana leads her troops out as the Royal Challengers spread out to the field and take their positions. Hayley Matthews and Sajana Sajeevan are the two openers for the Mumbai Indians. Lauren Bell has the new ball and is raring to go. Hayley to take the strike. The countdown is down and here we go!
We are just a few moments away from the first ball, but before that, both teams have lined up for the Indian national anthem on the occasion of the Republic Day of India.
RCB's Lauren Bell is up for a chat - She says that she stays positive and she performs best when she is smiling rather than getting angry. She prefers trusting her experience against familiar batters over relying on analytics, planning to stick to her strengths and target the stumps on this specific pitch. Bell also reflects on the challenge of modifying her bowling action while competing at the highest level, explaining that while she intends to bring back her inswinger during a future training block, her current focus remains on perfecting the consistency of her outswinger.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (Unchanged Playing XI) - Grace Harris, Smriti Mandhana(C), Georgia Voll, Gautami Naik, Richa Ghosh(WK), Radha Yadav, Nadine De Klerk, Arundhati Reddy, Sayali Satghare, Shreyanka Patil, and Lauren Bell.
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI) - Sajana Sajeevan, Hayley Matthews, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Amelia Kerr (In for Nicola Carey), Amanjot Kaur, Sanskriti Gupta, Rahila Firdous (WK), Poonam Khemnar, Shabnim Ismail, and Vaishnavi Sharma.
The captain of Mumbai Indians - Harmanpreet Kaur says that, considering the conditions and how the previous games have unfolded, the team would have preferred to bowl first, but adds that they are ready to adapt to whatever comes their way. She stresses that it is an important match for the side. She mentions that the team has spent quality time together, held productive meetings, and put in solid training sessions. Kaur hopes that everything discussed and worked on over the past couple of days translates into strong execution on the field. Confirming a change in the lineup, she says Amelia Kerr comes back into the side, while Nicola Carey misses out due to injury.
The captain of Royal Challengers Bengaluru - Smriti Mandhana says that they will bowl first as dew is a factor, and batting second would be good as they are a batting side. Adds that they have taken learnings from the last game and they have done well for the opening games. Adds that there was a bump in the last game but they will look to rectify those. Says that they will access a couple of overs and see how it goes. Ends by saying that they are going with the same side.