The 131-run stand between Hayley Matthews and Nat Sciver-Brunt laid the platform for the Mumbai Indians to finish with a strong total of 199. It was lovely seeing Hayley arrive at this year’s WPL, and with the business end of the tournament approaching, is peaking at the right time. She was at the post-match press conference, and we bring you the excerpts of the chat..

On finding herself among runs

Coming back from injury, being away from the game for a while, I really had to get back into things. In the first three games with the bat, I felt I was in a good place but wasn’t getting the results I wanted to. So yeah, it was just about keeping the confidence high, knowing that it will come eventually. Really happy to contribute with the bat today.

On batting with Nat Sciver-Brunt

I think we have a really good relationship at the crease. She flows really well and it helps me flow really well too. We are two really experienced players and I feel we certainly compliment each other at the crease really well. Some of the bowlers who aren’t my matchups are hers (to take down) and some of the bowlers that might be hers, I like to go after. We were able to have some really good conversations and think of exactly what we wanted to do and figure out best plans to maximize.

Plans during the powerplay

If you looked at the first few matches in this venue specifically, the first six to eight overs have been pretty hard to bat and the conditions have been a bit different. We knew if we gave ourselves a chance to get set and get settled early on, when the wicket gets better, we would be able to accelerate especially keeping wickets in hand with Harry (Harmanpreet Kaur) in the death overs. We didn’t want another powerplay where we were two down and had them in really early. It gave me opportunities to get in and get settled with Nat. And then we were both able to get going at the same time.

On Nat getting first WPL century

It was definitely nice to watch from the other end when she was going four after four after four. I do love batting with her. We flow off each other really well. For her to get the hundred today was quite deserving. With all the innings she has played, not only this year but over the last four years. She has probably been the best batter in this tournament. In my opinion, quite fitting that she was able to get the first one.

Discussions while batting with her in the middle

For us, it is more about picking overs we want to go at, or picking areas where we want to score. Focussing a lot on what we can do basis the ball more than the thinking about the score we need. Once we got to that ten-over mark with wickets in hand, we knew it would have been a great opportunity to push the run-rate up some more. We just focused really hard on how we wanted to do that.

Thoughts on the pitch

Probably still not as good as the wickets at DY Patil, but I think this is the wicket we played on in the first match here and there is some improvement on how the ball came on.

On the conversations with the management ahead of this must-win game

They just tried to instill some more trust in us. We’ve been such a successful team with the core group we have. We haven’t gone as well as we would have liked this season. But we know the quality we have had in the dressing room. We just hadn’t managed to make it click. They just instilled the trust. Every message was making sure we were just going out there and enjoying ourselves, and we were able to put it all together and play the way we were capable of.