Mooney magic and woeful Warriorz collapse hands Giants huge NRR-boosting win

Asked to bat first, Gujarat Giants lost their first wicket in the opening over itself as Dayalan Hemalatha stretched her string of poor scores by nicking behind off Chinelle Henry. The UP Warriorz seamers found substantial swing with the shiny new Kookaburra but Harleen Deol kept up the impetus with a boundary each in the second and third over before Mooney joined the party with a couple of her own off Deepti Sharma in the fourth over. Before long, the score had raced to 40 by the end of the powerplay. Even once the field spread out, the duo found a way to at least find one boundary each over, a pattern that stayed true for the entirety of their partnership as it ticked past 100. The onus once again fell on Sophie Ecclestone to provide the crucial breakthrough and the Englishwoman responded by castling Deol in the 12th over albeit with GG’s foundation well set at 104/2. Mooney saw the dismissal as a sign to break the shackles and punished Kranti Goud for a hattrick of boundaries the very next over, even though the pacer did get back by dispatching Ashleigh Gardner for cheap soon after. Nevertheless, the incoming Deandra Dottin declared her intentions with a boundary of just her second ball and let fly a huge maximum of Ecclestone in the next over before succumbing to the spinner for a sweet 8-ball 17. Mooney, meanwhile, kept marauding on despite Phoebe Litchfield returning to the pavilion too in the 19th over, and a miss from Barti Fulmali on the penultimate ball of the innings meant the Australian was left stranded at 96, the second highest score in tournament history.

In response, Dottin added to her batting heroics with a scintillating first over that begot the team two wickets. The first came with a gorgeous outswinger that took Kiran Navgire’s outside edge and flew to first slip, while WPL debutant Georgia Voll fell victim to a vicious inducker three balls later that breached the gap between bat and pad to shatter the stumps. Kahsvee Gautam replicated the latter effort to trump over Vrinda Dinesh’s attempted scoop as the hosts suddenly found themselves reelng at 13/3. The Giants added one more scalp in the powerplay when Deepti Sharma’s expansive drive against Meghna Singh only went as far as Mooney behind the stumps and once Shweta Sehrawat holed out against Gardner in the eighth over to further reduce the team to 36/5, the game was as good as done. Grace Harris tried to anchor the chase for a while with a less-than-run-a-ball 25 until she succumbed LBW to Tanuja Kanwar and Chinelle Henry provided some breathtaking entertainment late on with three boundaries and two maximums in her 14-ball 28. Neither had any impact on the result though, as two scalps from Kashvee Gautam in the 17th over and a third for Tanuja Kanwer on the night sealed the victory with 17 balls still to play.

WPL will become a flop show if indian women cricketers don’t step up their game. #WPL2025

— Tessaract🇮🇳 (@TessaractGaming) March 3, 2025

Without the power of West Indian players, every T20 league in the world is a bit bland!
Chinelle Henry is a powerful woman! 🔥#WPL2025

— Koushik Biswas (@kbofficial25) March 3, 2025

Dream delivery for Dottin!