Allround Nadine de Klerk seals stunning last-ball win

Nadine de Klerk continued to prove her mettle as a supreme white-ball finisher, smashing a sensational 63 not out to pip defending champions Mumbai Indians in a last-ball thriller at the DY Patil Stadium on the opening night of WPL 2026. Backing up her 4 for 26 with the ball to restrict the two-time champions to 154/6, the South African clobbered 20 off the final four deliveries – when RCB needed 18 – to get her side off to a winning start in the tournament's fourth edition, despite having been 65/5 at one stage.

Put in to bat first, Mumbai were helped to a competitive 154/6 after a sluggish start. MI's top-order struggled to find rhythm against a disciplined RCB bowling attack. Lauren Bell, on RCB debut, sent down 11 dots in her first two overs with Amelia Kerr especially struggling to get off the mark. Early wickets, including the cheap dismissals of Nat Sciver-Brunt and Kerr, left MI reeling.

Captain Harmanpreet Kaur showed glimpses of her trademark power with 20 off 17 balls. It was new opener G Kamalini who held one end up amidst the early jitters, scoring a fine 32. Mumbai looked in danger of finishing with a sub-par total at 80/4 when Harmanpreet fell, but S Sajana and Nicola Carey put on a record partnership to bail the team out.

The 82 runs they added together, in just 49 deliveries, is the highest stand for fifth wicket (or lower) for the franchise. Sajana was particularly destructive, smashing 45 off just 25 deliveries, finding the boundary with ease across both sides of the wicket. Carey played the perfect foil, rotating the strike and finding gaps. Their counter-attacking stand ensured Mumbai added over 69 runs in the last six overs to push the total past the 150 mark. De Klerk was the pick of the bowlers, finishing with an impressive 4/26 from her four overs including removing the well-set Sajana and Carey in the final over.

Contrary to the hosts, RCB's PowerPlay was more explosive with Smriti Mandhana's new opening partner Grace Harris setting the tone early. The duo put on 40 runs in just 23 balls to get the chase underway in style before they fell in quick succession. Nonetheless, RCB posted a solid 57/2 from their first six overs.

But, it quickly unraveled thereafter. Amanjot Kaur came into the attack and took just four balls to make an impact, trapping D Hemalatha LBW for just 7 off 12. At the other end, Amelia Kerr struck a double blow in her first over of the night – cleaning up Radha Yadav and then getting the destructive Richa Ghosh caught in the deep for a run-a-ball six three balls later.

The collapse of 5 for 25 would have had RCB rethinking their XI. Unlike MI's sixth-wicket pair that went on the offensive early, RCB's took their time getting their eye in. After 20 boundary-less deliveries, a desperate review from Arundhati Reddy saved her on 7 before her partner de Klerk decided to switch gears. The sixth-wicket pair took on Saika Ishaque, who conceded three boundaries and 13 overall in her first over. MI responded by bowling out Kerr to stem the flow, and the New Zealand leg-spinner finished with an excellent 2 for 13, leaving RCB 38 to get from the final 24 balls.

The 52-run partnership was broken right at the onset of the death overs with Reddy holing out to Kerr and giving Carey her maiden wicket for MI. The allrounder capped off a fine all-round display by cleaning up Shreyanka Patil for just one to put her team in the driving seat.

With RCB down to 121/7 at the end of the 17th over, the writing, it felt, was on the wall. Exactly then the death-overs jitters started to show. De Klerk was dropped twice and got a run-out reprieve in the penultimate over sent down by Shabnim Ismail. Prema Rawat closed off the over with a boundary hit to bring it down to a manageable 18 off the last six balls. Two dots upfront in the 20th again swung the momentum in MI's favour. But just as time, and deliveries, seemed to be running out, de Klerk flipped the script by taking Nat Sciver-Brunt to the cleaners with 6,4,6,4 to complete the heist in style.

Brief scores: Mumbai Indians 154/6 in 20 overs (S Sajana 54, Nicola Carey 40; Nadine de Klerk 4-26, Lauren Bell 1-14) lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore 157/7 in 20 overs (Nadine de Klerk 63*; Amelia Kerr 2-13, Nicola Carey 2-35) by 3 wickets.