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WPL 2024: Clinical UP Warriorz Beat the Hopeless Gujarat Giants by Six Wickets

Unfortunately, that appears to be the proverb for the Gujarat Monsters (GG), as they capitulated to a third continuous misfortune within the 2024 Women’s Chief Association (WPL), this time losing to UP Warriorz by six wickets at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday. Chasing 143 runs for triumph, Warriorz got off to a bursting beginning with kindness captain Alyssa Healy and Kiran Navgire, who crushed the GG bowling assault to all parts of the stadium, putting on 42 runs inside the opening five overs.

Some time ago, the ever-impressive Tanuja Kanwer expelled Navgire (12 runs off 8 balls) caught by Dayalan Hemalatha. GG applied more weight to the Warriorz by evacuating Healy (33 runs off 21 balls) bowled by Kathryn Bryce. Beauty Harris and Chamari Athapaththu, making her WPL debut, put on 36 runs for the third wicket sometime recently. The last mentioned fell (17 runs off 11 balls), caught by Laura Wolvaardt at the square leg boundary.

The Warriors needed 53 runs within the final 10 overs, and when Shweta Sehrawat (2 runs off 7 balls) was bowled to Meghana Singh, GG had their noses in front with the onus on Harris to require her side home. The Australian (60 runs off 33 balls) found back from Deepti Sharma (17 runs off 14 balls), and the pair put on 53 runs for the fifth wicket to assist Warriorz in clinching their momentous straight triumph and assembling an advanced force within the tournament. Prior, a 52-run stand between the Australian pair of Phoebe Litchfield and Ashleigh Cultivator made a difference, helping GG reach 142 for 5 in their 20 overs.

GG got off to a consistent start, with captain Beth Mooney and Wolvaardt contributing 40 runs for the primary wicket. But Warriors struck within the final over of Powerplay as Mooney fell (16 runs off 16 balls) caught by Harris off Sophie Ecclestone’s bowling. The Warriors connected the press, taking after Mooney’s wicket, as the boundaries dried up impressively. The weight, in the long run, is needed by the GG players, and Wolvaardt fell attempting to constrain the issue, caught at mid-off by Chamari Athapaththu (28 runs off 26 balls) to grant Ecclestone her moment wicket. GG found themselves streaming along at fair over a run-a-ball after 10 overs, and the onus was on Harleen Deol and Litchfield to induce them to a competitive total.

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The traditionalist approach of both batters implied that Healy never had to undertake anything excessive, and like was the case with Wolvaardt, it was the weight of being incapable of pushing the scoring rate upwards that yielded Warriorz their third wicket as Deol (18 runs off 24 balls) fell to Rajeshwari Gayakwad, caught by Anjali Sarvani. Litchfield has gotten a life on 19 when Deepti put down a sitter off Ecclestone’s bowling and the southpaw made the Warriors pay for the reprieve, putting on 52 runs for the fourth wicket with Ashleigh Cultivator, which included a 19-run over off Deepti. But Warriors struck back with two wickets within the same over, evacuating both Cultivator (30 runs off 17 balls) and Litchfield (35 runs off 26 balls) within the space of two balls to peg GG back and restrict them to 142 runs after 20 overs. If the defeat was not bad enough for GG, their top-order batter, Harleen Deol, sustained an injury to her knee while throwing a ball from the boundary and was carried away from the field, playing no further part in the innings.

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