Due to a shoulder injury, talismanic West Indies captain Hayley Matthews was unable to play for the Mumbai Indians (MI) versus Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2026.
On Friday, January 9, the Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai hosted the start of the fourth WPL season. Matthews, MI’s opening batsman, was not included in the starting lineup. Harmanpreet Kaur, the captain of MI, stated during the toss that the Caribbean all-rounder was not feeling well.
Matthews was unable to play in the opening game of the new season due to a shoulder injury, as MI head coach Lisa Keightley later disclosed. Additionally, the former stated that a decision regarding Matthews’ participation in MI’s second game will be made after her fitness is evaluated on Saturday.
“We’ll see how she performs and whether she’s well enough for the game tomorrow. Cricbuzz cited Keightley as adding, “But she is really close.”
In his 29 WPL appearances, Matthews has scored 758 runs with a strike rate of 27.07 and 121.47.
Five half-centuries have been scored by her, with her greatest score being 77* versus RCB. Matthews has taken 41 wickets with the ball at an economy rate of 7.25 and an average of 17.56. In the last game of the WPL’s first season in 2023, she recorded her best stats of 3/5.
In the encounter on Friday, Smriti Mandhana chose to bowl first after winning the RCB toss. After significant contributions from G Kamalini (32), Nicola Carey (40), and Sajeevan Sajan (45), Mumbai scored 154/6 in their 20 overs.
In response, RCB was in terrible shape at 65/5 and later at 121/7. But Nadine de Klerk led the Bengaluru-based team to an exciting victory off the final ball with an outstanding lower order batting performance. The South African batswoman supported her four-for earlier in the evening with an undefeated score of 63 off 44 balls.
In the last over, which was bowled by Nat Sciver-Brunt, 18 runs were needed to win. When it came down to it, eight runs were required off the final two balls. De Klerk helped her team win by three wickets with a six and a four.
Home