“The more things change, the more they remain the same”.
Unfortunately, that seems to be the motto for Gujarat Giants (GG) as they succumbed to a third consecutive loss in the 2024 Women’s Premier League (WPL), this time losing to UP Warriorz by six wickets at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday.
Chasing 143 runs for victory, Warriorz got off to a blazing start, courtesy skipper Alyssa Healy and Kiran Navgire, who smashed the GG bowling attack to all parts of the stadium, putting on 42 runs inside the opening five overs before the ever-impressive Tanuja Kanwer removed Navgire (12 runs off 8 balls) caught by Dayalan Hemalatha. GG exerted more pressure on the Warriorz by removing Healy (33 runs off 21 balls) bowled by Kathryn Bryce.
Grace Harris and Chamari Athapaththu-making her WPL debut-put on 36 runs for the third wicket before the latter fell (17 runs off 11 balls), caught by Laura Wolvaardt at the square leg boundary.
The Warriorz needed 53 runs in the last 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 take her side home.
The Australian (60 runs off 33 balls) found support from Deepti Sharma (17 runs off 14 balls) and the duo put on 53 runs for the fifth wicket to help Warriorz clinch their second straight victory and gather further momentum in the tournament.
Earlier, a 52-run stand between the Australian duo of Phoebe Litchfield and Ashleigh Gardener helped GG reach 142 for 5 in their 20 overs.
GG got off to a steady start with skipper Beth Mooney and Wolvaardt adding 40 runs for the first wicket. But Warriorz struck in the last over of Powerplay as Mooney fell (16 runs off 16 balls) caught by Harris off Sophie Ecclestone’s bowling.
The Warriorz applied the squeeze following Mooney’s wicket as the boundaries dried up considerably. The pressure eventually got to the GG batters and Wolvaardt fell trying to force the issue, caught at mid-off by Chamari Athapaththu (28 runs off 26 balls) to give Ecclestone her second wicket.
GG found themselves trickling along at just over a run-a-ball after 10 overs and the onus was on Harleen Deol and Litchfield to get them to a competitive total.
The conservative approach of both batters meant that Healy never had to try anything extravagant and like was the case with Wolvaardt, it was the pressure of being unable to push 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 received a life on 19, when Deepti put down a sitter off Ecclestone’s bowling and the southpaw made the Warriroz pay for the reprieve, putting on 52 runs for the fourth wicket with Ashleigh Gardener, which included a 19-run over off Deepti.
But Warriorz struck back with two wickets in the same over, removing both Gardener (30 runs off 17 balls) and Litchfield (35 runs off 26 balls) in the space of two balls to peg GG back and restrict them to 142 runs after 20 overs.
Harleen Deol suffers an injury
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 second innings.
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