2 wins in 2 matches. That’s great. Orange cap and Purple cap in the house. Cherry on the cake! The Holi celebrations in the MI camp have already begun with these two colours, along with Blue and Gold, of course. First, a massive 143-run win over Gujarat Giants, and now a clinical nine-wicket victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore. We are definitely going from strength to strength. To describe our performance in one word - DOMINATING.

After the game, the Orange cap holder - Hayley Matthews, who also won the player of the match award for her all-round brilliance (77* off 38 and 3/28), addressed the press conference. Reflecting on the match, Matthews said, “Before the start of the game, we thought that the par score would be around 170-180. When we had RCB out for 155, we knew we were in with a big chance. The wicket was also pretty good to bat on. And once we had a batter batting deep, it was easy. Nat and I could do it today.”    

Hayley has always been known for her hard-hitting abilities, but sometimes she fails to put a price tag on her wicket. She said, “I think in seven out of my last 10 T20I innings, I have got to 30s and 40s. Today, I got to a good start again. I told myself to stay focused and be more responsible at the crease.”

She added about Kaptaan Kaur, “She is great inside the dressing room. Always bubbly and cracking jokes. On the field, she has clear plans for each of us. We just have to go out there and execute.”

Now she may be just two matches old in the Mumbai Indians’ setup, but she has been an avid follower of the franchise since its early days. She said, “From when I was pretty young, I followed and supported my dad’s favourite sports teams. He was an MI fan from the very first season and a huge Sachin Tendulkar fan. When I was bought in the auction, somebody brought back all my tweets from 2013 around ‘Come on MI’ or something like that. It was pretty funny to see that.”

Life has indeed come a full circle for Hayley Matthews – from being just a fan of MI to winning games for the franchise that has already pocketed five championship titles!