The Mumbai Indians made it two wins out of two in the 2024 Women’s Premier League (WPL) after defeating the Gujarat Giants by five wickets at Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday and go on top of the points table in the early stages of the tournament.
Chasing 127 for a win, MI lost Yastika Bhatia for a run-a-ball 7, caught by Veda Krishnamurthy to give Kathryn Bryce her first WPL wicket.
Also Read: MI vs GG Match Highlights
Hayley Mathews fell cheaply for a second straight match (7 runs off 11 balls) this time to Tanuja Kanwer to leave the defending champions in a spot of bother at 21 for 2, inside the Powerplay.
But Nat Sciver-Brunt and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur put the bricks in place for a comfortable chase, with the former, especially, using the ramp shot to good effect against the medium-pace of Bryce and Lea Tahuhu.
But GG broke the growing stand, courtesy a run out from Kanwer which sent Sciver-Brunt back to the hut for 22. Kaur and Amelia Kerr then began to rebuild the innings once again and MI found themselves needing 62 runs in the last 10 overs.
Kaur maintained her form from the previous match by pacing her innings to near perfection and keeping MI ahead in the chase. She was well supported by Kerr and the duo put on 66 runs for the fourth wicket before the New Zealand batter fell lbw to Tahuhu for 31.
Kanwer returned for one final spell and dismissed Pooja Vastrakar (1 run off 2 balls) to create late jitters in the MI camp, but Kaur (46 not out in 41 balls) ensured there was no further trouble and clinched victory with a six off Sneh Rana.
Earlier, Shabnim Ismail (3 for 18 in 4 overs) and Kerr (4 for 17 in 4 overs) restricted GG to 126 for 9 in their 20 overs after Kaur won the toss and elected to field first on a fresh pitch. Ismail continued her impressive start to the tournament, removing Krishnamurthy (0 off 2 balls) and Harleen Deol (8 runs off 9 balls), lbw to incoming deliveries inside the opening Powerplay.
The onus fell on the Australian duo of skipper Beth Mooney and new acquisition Phoebe Litchfield to rebuild the innings, but the latter (7 runs off 8 balls) fell in the sixth over to leave GG in a whole heap of trouble at 43 for 3.
Ashleigh Gardener joined Mooney after Dayalan Hemalatha (3 runs off 8 balls) fell to Hayley Mathews and the Australian duo had a real task on their hands to get GG to a score they could defend. However, when Mooney fell (24 runs off 22 balls), caught by Bhatia to give Ismail her third wicket, it left GG’s innings in tatters at 58 for 5.
The job to take GG to a score they could compete with fell on Gardener, but when she fell (15 runs off 22 balls) to Amelia Kerr, the writing was well and truly on the wall. But Bryce (25 not off 24 balls) and Tanuja Kanwer (28 runs off 20 balls) put up some much-needed resistance to ensure GG batted the entire 20 overs.
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