Gujarat Giants defeated UP Warriorz by 10 runs in their opening Women's Premier League campaign at DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Saturday. The match provided plenty of fireworks with an excess of 400 runs scored, as GG posted a challenging score of 207/4 and Warriorz ended at 197/8 in 20 overs.
For Giants, Ashleigh Gardner scored 41-ball 65 and debutant Anushka Sharma contributed 44 in 30 balls. Both were involved in a 103-run stand for the third wicket. Sophie Devine scored 20-ball 38, at the top, and Player of the Match, Georgia Wareham smashed unbeaten 27 off 10 balls towards the end to finish the innings with a flourish. For UP Warriorz, only Sophie Ecclestone 2/32 was not mediocre while the rest, including experienced Deepti Sharma and Deandra Dottin, were expensive.
Wareham (2/30), Devine (2/55), and Gardner (1/37 in 3 overs) also contributed with the ball as Renuka Singh (2/25) emerged as the best bowler in the afternoon match. Phoebe Litchfield scored 40-ball 78 for Warriorz to keep the chase on, but fell short in the end.
Earlier, Warriorz skipper Meg Lanning won the toss and elected to field in the afternoon game, in pursuit of some early wickets. Experienced New Zealand all-rounder Devine was preferred over aggressive Dannie Wyatt-Hodge. Devine gave an early momentum to the innings with a four and six off Shikha Pandey after Kranti Gaud bowled a tight first over.
Dottin was greeted with a boundary in the third over of the innings. Devine dispatched a Deepti Sharma full toss over a deep square leg and then got a boundary through a fine leg to get the Giants going. Deepti conceded 14 runs in her first over.
Ecclestone bowled Mooney (13) to end the 41-run opening stand in the fifth over. But Devine kept finding boundaries to raise fifty for Gujarat Giants in 5.1 overs. Devine holed out to Litchfield in the deep off Shikha. Giants ended the power play at 56 with both openers back in the hut.
Anushka and Gardner accumulated runs in the middle overs and found boundaries in every over to keep the momentum going. GG raised the hundred in 11.1 overs. Gardner scored the bulk of runs to collect 18 runs each from two consecutive overs to reach 50 in 30 balls with four, and followed by six off Ecclestone. The duo raised a 100-run partnership in 49 balls, and GG were going strong at 152/2 in 15 overs.
Runs suddenly dried after the strategic time out as Lanning and Co brought some control.
Anushka hit straight to Harleen Deol off Dottin to bring an end to a promising innings. Gardner was bowled by Ecclestone in the 18th over. However, Georgia hit three sixes in the 19th over to get 20 runs off Dottin and wrest back momentum. Bharti Fulmali (14 not out) raised 200 with a six of Deepti Sharma and followed with another one. The last over yielded 14 runs as GG finished in style.
Defending a high total, Renuka (2/25) struck in her first over to dismiss Kiran Navgire. Australian women's pair of Lanning and Litchfield got together. Lanning was struggling but held on to share a 70-run stand with in-form Litchfield, who finished the powerplay with a boundary and six off Gardener as Giants were 46/1.
Lanning scraped to 30 in 27 balls before falling leg before to Wareham, a decision she seemed unhappy about, despite using DRS unsuccessfully. Harleen Deol (0) was caught and bowled by Wareham (2/30) in her second ball, and Deepti Sharma (1) fell similarly to Renuka as Warriorz lost their way. From 73/1 it became 74/4 in a space of five balls. Litchfield raised fifty in 24 balls and kept her team’s hopes alive. She found an able partner in wicket-keeper batter Shweta Sehrawat (25). Litchfield hit two sixes of Wareham in the 13th over to raise a fifty-run stand for the fifth wicket in just 23 balls.
Warriorz needed 76 in 36 balls, but Sehrawat and Litchfield fell in the next two overs to leave an improbable 53 to get in four overs. Big-hitting Dottin (12) was the last hope, but she too fell in the 18th over after hitting a big six. Asha Sobhana provided late fireworks with 10-ball 27, but the match was out of Warriorz' grasp. Both sides are searching for a maiden WPL title.
