Nat Sciver-Brunt created history on Wednesday by becoming the first player to score a century in the Women’s Premier League. The milestone came during Match 16 of WPL 2026 between the Mumbai Indians (MI) and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara.Batting first after the Mumbai Indians were put in, Nat Sciver-Brunt got off to a steady start before picking up the pace. Nat Sciver-Brunt reached her half-century in 32 balls and then shifted gears, bringing up her hundred from 57 deliveries in the 19th over. The knock also took her to the top of the WPL run-scoring charts.
Nat Sciver- Brunt finished unbeaten on 100 from 57 balls, striking 16 fours and one six. Her innings powered the Mumbai Indians to a strong total of 199 for four. Speaking at the break, Nat Sciver-Brunt admitted she was aware of the so-called 90s curse and was determined not to fall into it. She said her main focus was to score as many runs as possible for the team.
Nat Sciver-Brunt became the first batter to score a century in the WPL’s short history, with her 100* against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), to end the 1059-day wait of the league.The previous highest individual score was 99* by Georgia Voll against RCB last year, while Sophie Devine also made 99 against Gujarat Giants (GG) in the inaugural edition in 2023.
The WPL recorded as many as ten scores in the 90s before Sciver-Brunt’s hundred. Monday’s fixture was the 82nd match of the WPL across the four seasons, the longest wait for any T20 franchise league to witness its maiden individual century.
8883 Runs for Sciver-Brunt in T20 cricket before scoring her maiden hundred of the format on Monday. She held the record for the most T20 runs by a woman without an individual hundred.
These are also the most runs for anyone before their maiden T20 century (men or women). Kieron Pollard previously held this record, having scored his maiden century after 8316 runs, while the equivalent record among women was held by Elyse Villani, with 6441 runs, closely followed by Amy Satterthwaite (6436).
57 Fifties by Nat Sciver-Brunt before Monday, with her previous highest individual score in the format being 96 not out against Central Sparks in 2023. These are the most fifties scored by a batter before their maiden hundred in T20s. Shikhar Dhawan and Villani converted their 57th T20 fifty into a hundred for the first time. 12 Fifty-plus scores by Nat Sciver-Brunt in the WPL, the most by a batter, going past the 11 fifties by Meg Lanning. Sciver-Brunt is also the leading run-getter of the league, with 1346 runs.
4 Number of century partnerships between Nat Sciver-Brunt and Hayley Matthews, the most by any pair in the WPL. Lanning and Shafali Verma are next with three such stands, while no other pair has multiple century partnerships in the WPL.
The century was special in more ways than one. It was Nat Sciver-Brunt’s first hundred in T20 cricket, and she celebrated the moment knowing her partner, former England cricketer Katherine Sciver-Brunt, was watching. “Katherine wanted me to get there, and I’m glad I did,” she said. “It’s my first T20 century, and hopefully, it won’t be the last.”
Nat Sciver Brunt (100* off 57) ended the WPL’s long wait for a century with a blistering knock that helped Mumbai Indians beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Vadodara and move up to second spot in the table.
Nat Sciver-Brunt’s unbeaten 100 headlined MI’s dominant performance with the bat as they made 199 for 4 – the highest total so far in the Vadodara leg of the tournament. She was well accompanied by Hayley Matthews (56 off 39 and 3 for 10 in two overs). In reply, RCB suffered a collapse that saw them lose half their side inside the PowerPlay before eventually falling short only by 15 runs thanks to a stunning 90 from Richa Ghosh.
Pitch Report and Toss
Pitch Report : There’s been a lot of chat about the soil and pitch being used here. Pleased to say it’s a reasonably even surface, but slightly shorter on one side, which the skippers will keep in mind. But let’s get right into this pitch. First and foremost, we’ve been talking a lot about the black soil. Now, in Australia we have a lot of black soil, but we get a lot of bounce. Here in India, it’s slightly different. When we say black soil, it basically means the content underneath the grass, the turf on the top – has a very high clay content, and that’s supposed to hold moisture.
You can see it in there. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s exactly the same on a good length, but you can understand why it’s causing a few issues for some bowlers and some batters as well. It’s really intriguing when we look at the surface. This is the same surface that was used in the last game. There was a lot more grass on it then and now they’ve trimmed it back. It looks a lot more even than we might have expected. There’s still green grass on it.
They mentioned the grass was a bit straw-like, which is why we saw that up-and-down bounce earlier. And as a batter, you’ll know this, it requires so much discipline out here. When you look at the success of the batters so far, there’s been a really clear focus on hitting straight down the ground. When the ball doesn’t bounce as much, and with this black clay surface offering low bounce, you’ve got to hit straight. A lot of batters have struggled, or gotten out, playing across the line.
And as a captain, that’s exactly what you want, to force batters to play across the line. It hasn’t been easy because of the clay and the low bounce. As a skipper, field placement is going to be crucial. You’ve got to keep mid-wicket in for as long as you can. Knowing this is a must-win game for Mumbai, how do you manipulate those straight fielders and say – “Go square at your own risk”.
Wicketkeepers might just try to keep batters in the crease, because batters could use a bit of movement to negate that mid-wicket option as well. There’s so much going on out in the middle for this match. It’s up to the captains, the bowlers, and the batters to figure out what the right total is. – reckons Mel Jones and Katey Martin.
Toss : RCB Women skipper Smriti Mandhana won the toss and chose to bowl first with no changes in the Playing XI . MI skipper Harmanpreet Kaur batting first made one change in the Playing XI bringing in Amelia Kerr for injured Nicola Carey.
Nat Sciver-Brunt’s maiden WPL ton lifts MI Women to 199 for 4 in 20 overs
Lauren Bell gave RCB the ideal start with an early wicket yet again, with that of Sajeevan Sajana, and they did keep things tight by conceding just 38 runs in the PowerPlay. Sciver-Brunt and Hayley Matthews took time to get going but once they did, the boundaries started flowing. MI raced to 76 at the halfway mark despite the sedate powerplay but the real carnage was yet to begin. Nat Sciver-Brunt took on Nadine de Klerk for a six and a four before targetting Shreyanka Patil for a hat-trick of boundaries to bring up her fifty.
MI’s powerplay woes continued as S Sajana fell early to Lauren Bell’s swing for 7, and they trudged along against the moving ball to reach 38 for 1 in the powerplay, with just four fours and no sixes.
The experienced duo of Nat Sciver-Brunt and Hayley Matthews then lifted MI with a rapid partnership that raced from 50 to 100 in just 21 balls. Nat Sciver-Brunt was the first to cut loose when she made room against Nadine de Klerk to smash her down the ground. As the pitch again lacked pace, Nat Sciver-Brunt and Matthews rocked onto the back foot to collect boundaries. Nat Sciver-Brunt slapped two through the covers off Shreyanka Patil in the eighth over, Matthews went behind square off Arundhati Reddy for two more fours in the next, and the fifty stand was up.
The English batter put on a show by adding three more fours in the very next over off Radha Yadav before Matthews joined the party by bringing up her own half-century. RCB needed Bell to come back and break the 131-run partnership in her final over but it hardly made a difference as the flow of boundaries just didn’t stop. I
n the process, Nat Sciver-Brunt also became the first batter to score over 300 runs in a WPL season on three different occasions (2023, 2025 and 2026). She closed out the penultimate over with another boundary to move to 99 before finally becoming the first player to register a century in the competition, ending the long drought.
Soon after she topped the run charts for this WPL, Nat Sciver-Brunt increased RCB’s headaches by piercing the gaps all around the park. After smacking de Klerk for a six, she punished Shreyanka for three consecutive fours – the first two off sweeps that brought up her 32-ball fifty, her fourth of the season. Matthews ended the 18-run over with another boundary before Nat Sciver-Brunt carved Radha Yadav for three fours in the next, bringing up their century stand off just 61 balls.
Matthews soon got to her 35-ball fifty – her first of this WPL – and the dominating partnership ended only when Bell returned and rattled Matthews’ stumps after the ball ricocheted off both pads. Harmanpreet Kaur lasted 12 balls for 20 runs before holing out to long-off, and Nat Sciver-Brunt ended the 19th over by carving a wide yorker for four to move to 99, the highest individual score in the WPL until Monday.
She went past the barrier after holding the record for the most runs (8,883) and fifties (57) without a hundred in women’s T20s, across 348 innings. Shreyanka bowled a tidy last over for just five runs, keeping MI just short of 200.
Richa Ghosh’s valiant 90 in vain as Hayley Matthew’s 3-fer in the Powerplay gives MI-Women a 15 runs win over RCB -Women
Presentations and Road Ahead
Smriti Mandhana the losing RCB -W skipper said : Absolutely brilliant innings from Richa Ghosh. I mean, it was just a treat to watch. Nadine as well, a good contribution. But yeah, I think, of course, these sort of innings, when you lose, wouldn’t go noticed. But I think it’s one of the best innings I’ve seen. Nat is definitely a world-class player. She can hit one ball at three different places, which again makes life very difficult. Credit to her.
The shots she played were amazing. I mean, there were not many answers which we could find out there in the middle. She almost scored the bulk of the runs. Plus, the way she accelerated after 25-30 is something which every youngster should watch and learn. Bowling has been brilliant throughout the first five games for sure. But today was one of those days where a few of our bowlers didn’t get the lines right.
In T20 cricket, when someone is set, you try a few things and sometimes it doesn’t work out. Lauren Bell was brilliant with the new ball and even when she came back on. But others couldn’t step up today. Nadine also bowled those two difficult overs from the shorter end, so credit to her as well. We’ll think about our strategies and come back. Every time we do speak about not being complacent about qualifying.
We have to win one to go straight to the finals. Having said that, there are a few things we definitely need to work on. WPL, because it’s five teams, always becomes complicated towards the end of the season. But for us, keeping things simple worked in the first five games, and we have to continue doing that. In T20 cricket, you’re going to have extremely good days and bad days. We have to take both in our stride and see what we can do better.
Harmanpreet Kaur the winning MI-W skipper said : Yeah, it was a really good game overall. Everyone contributed. Nat was outstanding, Matthews played beautifully, and it was good to see her get some runs – we were waiting for that to happen. It was a complete team effort. This is our fourth year playing together, so we know each other very well. That’s something special about MI – whenever the team is challenged, someone always steps up.
Today was one of those days where everyone wanted to give their best for the team, and it showed. That small break we had really helped us. We sat together, had good bonding sessions, and spoke about how to approach these last two games. We knew how important they were and wanted to play with a fresh mindset. You could see that confidence reflect in today’s performance. She’s (Sciver-Brunt) been amazing for us.
Whenever the team needs her, she’s always there, taking responsibility. We love watching her bat and love playing alongside her. It was great to see her get those runs. She’s (Ismail) been waiting for this. She always takes crucial wickets for us, and it’s good to see her rhythm coming back. Hopefully, this continues.
Nat Sciver Brunt Player of the Match for her brilliant century said : Yeah, it’s obviously a special moment to reach that milestone, but more importantly, it was about getting runs on the board for the team. These last two games are pretty much knockout games for us, so to be able to perform like that – and to build such a strong partnership with Hayley Matthews – was massive for the team. I’m just really happy with how it turned out.
(about her consistency) I guess it’s about preparing in the same way and mentally trying to turn up in the same place each time. Staying present in the match is key – not thinking about the balls that have already gone or the ones that are coming up, just focusing on the one you’re about to face. (on having 2-3 shots for one ball) Today I was just reacting to the balls that were bowled and playing according to the field.
Sticking to my strengths, backing the shots I like to play, and manoeuvring the field when possible – that was the plan. (does she plan specifically against a bowler) A little bit, yeah. Some bowlers suit your strengths more than others, and sometimes a bowler might just be on fire that day. So it’s about assessing where you can score. We also used the powerplay to read the wicket – we didn’t go too hard early, realised it was playing nicely, and then Hayley and I decided to put the foot down.
The most prolific batter of the WPL and the ever-so reliable Nat Sciver-Brunt has finally broken the century drought in the tournament, 1059 days and 82 matches since the league started in 2023. Even though the conditions continued to be slow in Vadodara, Nat Sciver-Brunt switched gears after the powerplay with a 32-ball half-century to pick the gaps and middle the ball in unparalleled fashion.
She powered Mumbai Indians (MI) to 199, the highest total on this ground this season, and the scoreboard pressure told on the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batters who collapsed to 35 for 5. They were given a late lift by Richa Ghosh’s bludgeoning 90 off just 50 balls that tried to rescue a sinking ship but the asking rate and lack of partners kept the task too stiff and they went down by only 15 runs in the end after her stunning assault.
Nat Sciver-Brunt’s maiden T20 century could have hardly come at a better time for MI; they were fourth on the table after losing their last three games and needed to win this game to keep their knockouts fate in their own hands. They did it by taking down the table-toppers to go second and RCB have now lost two in a row after kicking off the season with five wins on the bounce that had taken them to the knockouts.
Apart from those last two overs, it was a commanding performance from Mumbai Indians. In a must-win encounter, their senior players stood tall and delivered when it mattered most. Nat Sciver-Brunt led the charge with the first ever WPL hundred, before Hayley Matthews and Shabnim Ismail ripped through the RCB top order, claiming the first five wickets to set up a 15-run victory. RCB were already on the back foot after a punishing bowling effort, and the chase unravelled rapidly in the powerplay as they lost half their side.
There was a fightback through Richa Ghosh, Nadine de Klerk and Arundhati Reddy, with Richa battling till the end and scoring 35 runs in the last two overs, but the task proved far too steep. After winning their first five games, RCB have now suffered back-to-back losses and will need to regroup quickly to ensure their final league match doesn’t make it three defeats on the bounce.
For Mumbai Indians, this was the perfect response – a big score on the board, wickets up front, and some outstanding fielding. Just the final two overs got away from them. But still it’s a confidence-boosting win that keeps their campaign alive and gives them vital momentum heading into their final league fixture.
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