Image Credit- BCCI
After three games, Beth Mooney’s team was without a
win until Grace Harris struck for fifty runs in a row against Gujarat Giants.
This brought UP Warriorz level on points with the other four teams. With nine
fours and two sixes in his undefeated sixty-odd off 33 balls, Harris changed
what was starting to become a tight match into a one-sided encounter. In eight
games, Warriorz were the sixth team to triumph in chasing at the M Chinnaswamy.
Giants will look back on a batting lineup that
features many big names but not enough big runs in the end. Despite scoring the
most runs of the tournament so far, none of their batters scored more than
Phoebe Litchfield’s 35, and a cunning Warriorz assault kept them quiet.
Warriorz bowled one over of seam during the powerplay, and that was from Anjali
Sarvani. It cost 13 runs and brought about a successful spin squeeze that
lasted for three overs. Giants scored forty runs between the fifteenth and
eighteenth overs while Ashleigh Gardner and Litchfield put up a 52-run
partnership for the fifth wicket.
The Giants achieved their greatest outcome at the top
after attempting a third combination in as many games. In her debut WPL match,
Laura Wolvaardt began with Beth Mooney and the two of them shared a 40-run
stand.
Litchfield, who entered the game at number four, later on in the innings lived
up to his reputation and added some drive to a languid performance. She was
dismissed on 19 after scoring in the single digits in her opening two games.
She then smashed the biggest six of the innings, slamming Deepti Sharma over
deep mid-wicket. The Giants’ first 50-run partnership of the competition was
between Litchfield and Ashleigh Gardner, who also provided their offence with
something to bowl at.
The top-ranked T20I bowler demonstrated why she is so
highly regarded by taking three vital wickets to contain the Giants. During the
powerplay, Sophie Ecclestone made her debut when Mooney attempted to loft her
over mid-off but Harris caught her in the circle. Giants bowled 19 balls
without a boundary for her second wicket, thanks to a spin squeeze. Wolvaardt
decided to play over the top, but she gave a straightforward chance to Chamari
Athapaththu, who was making her WPL debut, at mid-off.
As a stand-in for Lauren Bell, Athapaththu entered
through the backdoor after failing to sell at auction both this year and last.
She had to wait until the third game to be included in the starting lineup and
until the second half of the game to bat, which is her strongest suit. After
giving herself a glimpse and blocking the first ball for four, she demonstrated
her powerful wrists by hitting the second ball across midwicket for four. She
suggested that the best was still to come as she hammered three more fours and
dropped for a brisk seventeen.
Despite having Harris available, the Warriors faltered
after losing Athapaththu and Shweta Sehrawat in the span of three overs. Harris
was on 25 from 17 balls when Sehrawat was dismissed, and Warriorz needed 53
runs off 56 balls. She hit Sneh Rana down the ground with exquisite accuracy in
the following over, and although she would play the paddle down leg and the
slog over cow corner, the highlight was the shot down the ground. With even
more precision, she repeated the play at the beginning of the fifteenth over.
The Warriorz needed eight runs off of thirty-one balls when she reached fifty
off of thirty. With 26 balls remaining, she helped them cross the finish line.