Grace Harris on Friday scored an unbeaten half-century to guide the UP Warriorz to a big win over the Gujarat Giants in the 2024 Women’s Premier League at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Riding on Harris’s unbeaten 33-ball 60, the Warriorz chased down the target of 143 runs with 26 balls to spare. The win sees the Warriorz tie Delhi Capitals, Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Mumbai Indians with four points. The Giants, on the other hand, are rooted to the bottom of the table after losing all three of their matches so far.
Warriorz captain Alyssa Healy won the toss on a slow track and put the Giants to bat first. Laura Wolvaardt, who replaced Lea Tahuhu in the side, opened the innings with skipper Beth Mooney and got off to good start hitting Anjali Sarvani to a hat-trick of fours in the second over.
An over later, the pair hit Rajeshwari Gayakwad for 11 runs. However, at the other end, debutant Chamari Athapaththu kept things tight conceding just five runs from her opening two overs.
Healy brought on her main strike bowler in Sophie Ecclestone and the move paid off immediately. Mooney hit the English spinner for a four with the first ball but Ecclestone had the last laugh.
Ecclestone tossed in a flighted delivery enticing Mooney to dance down the track to hit it over mid off. However, she did not time her shot and ended up giving Grace Harris an easy catch.
Harris and Deepti Sharma were miserly in the seventh and eighth over giving away just nine runs combined as the pressure built on Wolvaardt and Harleen Deol. Healy brought back Ecclestone into the attack and she struck again. Another flighted bowl, another dance down the track and another easy catch at mid off, this time by Athapaththu.
The Giants needed to up the scoring having trudged along to 62/2 in 10 overs. With Deol struggling to hit boundaries, Litchfield took on the attack hitting Athapaththu for two boundaries in the 11th over.
Deol’s ordeal finally came to an end in the 13th over after she mistimed her shot and gave Sarvani an easy catch.
Litchfield was joined by Ashleigh Gardner and the two Australians began to rebuild the innings and they also had help along the way. Litchfield got a reprieve when she was on 19 after Sharma dropped a sitter.
Litchfield and Gardner took on the attack hitting 40 runs in the next three overs. To rub salt in her wounds, 19 of the 40 runs came in one Deepti Sharma over.
Healy once again went to her strike bowler for a breakthrough and Ecclestone’s final over, the 19th of the match, delivered two. Athapaththu took a fine catch to dismiss Gardner for a 17-ball 30.
New batter D Hemalatha looked to get Litchfield on strike and went for a risky single only for Thakor to catch the Australian short with a direct hit at the batter’s end. Hemalatha and Kathryn Bryce could not take their team past the 150-mark as Athapaththu bowled a tight final over to restrict the Giants to 142/5.
The Warriorz’s innings was in complete contrast to the Giants’ with the former scoring 112 of their 143 runs through boundaries. The Giants, meanwhile, scored just 72 runs through boundaries.
The Warriorz began their chase with a bang as Healy went after Meghana Singh hitting the pacer for five boundaries across her first two overs. However, the Giants fought back in the power-play. Tanuja Kanwar got the wicket of Kiran Navgire while Kathryn Bryce bowled Healy in the next over.
That brought out Harris who hit the ground running scoring 23 runs off her first 10 balls. Even as Harris went about her way, the Giants struck at the other end getting the wickets of Athapaththu and Shweta Sehrawat.
Harris was in fine form hitting the bowlers around all over the ground with ease and she found an able companion in Deepti Sharma.
The duo hit Gardner for 17 runs in the 14th over and followed it up by hitting Meghna for 16 runs off the next. The over also saw Harris bring up her third successive half-century against the Giants as the Warriorz completed a comprehensive victory.
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