Self-inflicted Gujarat collapse hands Mumbai big NRR boost in five-wicket win

Asked to bat first, Gujarat Giants’ troubles up top continued as Beth Mooney sliced a Natalie-Sciver Brunt cutter to short-third to end a three-ball stay. Her opening partner Laura Wolvdaart followed suit the following over by chipping a Shabnim Ismail half volley straight down deep cover’s throat, and a wild Dayalan Hemalatha heave four deliveries later meant the hosts were left reeling at 16/3. Skipper Ashleigh Gardner, having set the tournament alight so far, seemed on course to deliver another match-saving performance as she seized momentum with a boundary and a six, but her greed to extract the maximum from the powerplay meant Natalie’s cutter had another victim as the scorecard read 28/4 after six. The onus fell on Harleen Deol to reconstruct the innings, especially once Deandra Dottin skipped out of her track against Amelia Kerr only to be emphatically stumped, and found some able company in Kashvee Gautam. The two combined for a relatively quick 24 runs but Matthews’ golden arm struck once again to nick off the latter in the 12th over. Nevertheless, Harleen kept ticking along at the other end with the occassional boundary as she saw Simran Shaikh depart too after a nothing shot, and a couple boundaries from Tanuja Kanwer arrived as unexpected relief. However, the duo departed in the space of three deliveries as the score slid further to 103/9 but a couple of late strikes from Sayali Satghare in her unbeaten 13 ensured Gujarat got to a competitive 120.

Mumbai Indians clearly thought otherwise as Hayley Matthews declared her intentjons with a boundary on the second ball of the innings and toyed with Tanuja in the fourth over to fetch two more, but the Indian had the last laugh when the West Indian slapped a half-tracker straight to short square-leg. It made little difference though as Natalie Sciver-Brunt picked up exactly where her Caribbean counterpart had left with a first-ball boundary before adding three more before Yastika Bhatia holed out after a strugglesome 10-ball stay with the score 46/2 after seven. Harmanpreet Kaur began with a four off her first balll as well, only to be trapped plumb LBW by Kashvee on the very next ball, and Gujarat suddenly seemed to have found an opening. Amelia Kerr quickly snuffed out all such doubts with a nearly run-a-ball 19 in seamless 45-run stand with Natalie, the latter striking 11 boundaries in her 37-ball 59, and despite a couple late hiccups the visitors got across the line with 23 balls to spare.

Teen sensation starts strong!

Sajana started her WPL with a six.
Kamalini starts her WPL with a four.
Not bad at all.

— Krithika (@krithika0808) February 18, 2025