THE Royal Challengers Bangalore have defeated the Mumbai Indians by five runs to cause a bit of an upset and move through to the Women’s Indian Premier League (WIPL) Final.

After the Royal Challengers were restricted to just 6/135, some superb bowling ensured Mumbai could only make 6/130. The win sees Bangalore move through to Sunday’s Final, while on the flipside Mumbai’s title defence is over.

Bangalore was left reeling early, finding itself at 3/23 in the fourth over, then 4/49 just under six overs later. But with Ellyse Perry at the crease, the run rate started to elevate, and without her 66 from just 50 balls, her side would have been in real trouble, especially because no other batter made it out of the teens. The next highest was fellow Aussie Georgia Wareham’s 18 not out.

Meanwhile for Mumbai, the wicket taking duties were shared very evenly, with Hayley Matthews, Natalie Sciver-Brunt and Saika Ishaque all picking up two wickets each.

When Mumbai found itself at 3/68 in the 11th over, the Indians would not quite have hit panic stations yet. Their biggest partnership of the innings then followed, which saw them only need 16 runs off the last two overs.

However, it all went pair shaped for the reigning champions from there as they lost two wickets and only put 10 runs on the board to fall agonisingly short.

Harmanpreet Kaur was the pick of the Mumbai batters with 33, while Amelia Kerr’s 27 not out was not too far behind.

On the other side of the equation, Shreyanka Patil picked up two wickets for the Royal Challengers, while Perry, Wareham, Sophie Molineux and Sobhana Asha all picked up a single wicket each.

The 2024 WPL Final will take place at 1am AEDT on Monday morning between the Delhi Capitals and the Royal Challengers Bangalore.