Harmanpreet Kaur-led Mumbai Indians won their second WPL 2024 match, defeating the Gujarat Giants by five wickets. Kaur won her second toss in a row at Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, inviting the Giants to bat first. Amelia Kerr of New Zealand recalls a memorable day. The spin-bowling all-rounder delivered an outstanding performance with both bat and ball, leading the Gujarat Giants to a comfortable 5-wicket victory.
Mumbai Indians won the toss and chose to bowl first to answer which Beth Mooney and Veda Krishnamurthy walked down the crease to open the Gujarat Giants’ inning but to their misery Krishnamurthy collapsed on the very fourth ball of the very first over by Shabnim Ismail. The new down Harleen Deol came much confidently smashing her and her team’s first maximum of the match in the second over but Ismail had her day to dismiss Deol too early in the third over.
Beth Mooney tried to release some pressure built pre-matured in the first game of the Giants by collecting three consecutive boundaries in the fourth over but that too couldn’t make it to the mark as Giants lost another of their star players, Phoebe Litchfield, owing to Nat Sciver-Brunt’s submissive delivery in the sixth over. Gujarat were 43 for the loss of 3 at the end of the powerplay.
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Shabnim Ismail gets the Gujarat Giants skipper Beth Mooney! 🙌
— Women's Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) February 25, 2024
Yastika Bhatia with a fine catch behind the stumps 👏#GG 72/5 after 12 overs
Match Centre 💻📱https://t.co/K8TakIEr6g#TATAWPL | #GGvMI pic.twitter.com/lZuT2B9WdX
And there came another in the shocking collapse in the name of Dayalan Hemalatha in the eighth over bowled by Hayley Matthews. And the torrential fall of wickets continued as the struggling Mooney too had to finally depart for the pavilion in the 11th over at 24 off 22. And the much-awaited and relieving boundary came across Giants from the bat of Ashleigh Gardner in the twelfth over after running for too much of ado.
And after scoring just another boundary Gardner too had to walk back towards the dug-out at just 15 off 22 balls and it was all for Amelia Kerr and her side as Sneh Rana too got succumbed to Kerr in the 14th over. And there was some relief for the Giants as Tanuja Kanwar and Kathryn Bryce tried to dam the frivolous fall of wickets as Kanwar hit her first boundary a ball after Rana’s disappointing duck.
Bryce too joined hands with her much more firmly by hitting her first maximum of the match in the second last over of the inning. Despite their backlash to the gigantic attack by Mumbai Indians bowlers, the last over could only bring a boundary for Kanwar before she got dismissed on the fourth ball of the last over at 28 off 22 and Lea Tahuhu’s duck on the last ball that froze the total at 126 for 9.
Tremendous support for a terrific bowling spell 😃👌
— Women's Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) February 25, 2024
The Chinnaswamy crowd matched the energy of Shabnim Ismail's bowling performance tonight 🥳#TATAWPL | #GGvMI | @shabnim_ismail pic.twitter.com/HMYLaxT8ZY
MI started their chase on a balanced note with 7 runs in the first over and then there was Hayley Matthews who started swinging her bat and ending up hitting two boundaries in the second over but Yastika Bhatia couldn’t last longer than the second ball of the third over which was followed by an early dismissal of good-in-touch Matthews but Nat Sciver-Brunt had her wills near the fence with two boundaries in the fifth over before finally getting a disappointing run-out in the eighth over at 22 (18).
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Amelia was next in the order but she too could only contribute a boundary before getting succumbed to Lea Tahuhu’s excellent breakthrough that cost her a wicket in the 16th over followed by another wicket in the name of Vastrakar as Kanwar bowled her out in the 17th over. But things were already done in Mumbai Indians’ favour by this time and it just needed the skipper Harmanpreet Kaur’s 18th over the boundary and the match-winning six on the first ball of the 19th over that won her the game.
Brief Scores: Gujarat Giants vs Mumbai Indians Match 3
Gujarat Giants 126/9 in 20 overs (Tanuja Kanwar 28, Kathryn Bryce 25; Amelia Kerr 4-17, Shabnim Ismail 3-18) lost to Mumbai Indians 129/5 in 18.1 overs (Harmanpreet Kaur 46*, Amelia Kerr 31; Tanuja Kanwar 2-21, Lea Tahuhu 1-17) by 5 wickets.
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