Australian Grace Harris’s devastating knock of 59 runs in just 26 balls helped UP Warriorz secure the thrilling last-over victory against the Gujrat Giants in the 3rd match of the inaugural season of the WPL at Navi Mumbai’s DY Patil Stadium on Sunday.
WPL had a flying start in the first two matches; the team batting first scored more than 200 runs in both games, Mumbai(207) and Delhi (223), but the chasing team couldn’t handle the scoreboard pressure. But today, UP Warriorz had another plan when they started their challenging chase of 170 runs against Gujrat.
Grace Harris wins thrilling race
After the initial setback at the top, they lost their way in the middle. They needed 52 runs in the final 3 overs, and it was looking like a game done for the Gujrat, but Grace Harris, with her impressive and powerful hitting, pulled an incredible heist and pulled victory from the jaws of Gujrat Gaints. Gujrat has yet to win their first game this season, having lost two matches in successive days.
Earlier in the day, Gujarat Giants had shown a much-improved batting display. They put a challenging total of 170 runs on the board. Harleen Deol anchored the innings; she scored 46 off 32 deliveries; she was well supported by Ashleigh Gardner (25 off 16) and Dayalan Hemalatha ( 21 off 13). Gujrat was playing without captain Beth Mooney, who twisted her ankle in their first match against Mumbai. Sneha Rana was leading the side.
Gujrat also Started their defence very well. Kim Garth picked three big wickets in her second over, reducing UP to 20 for 3. Captain Healy gave a straight catch back to Garth while trying to flick the ball. Two balls later, Shweta Sherawat gave straight forward catch at short third, but a big wicket of Tahlia McGrath came on the very next ball; she went chasing for the drive but only managed to nick it to the first slip.
The Indian duo of Kiran Navgire and Deepti Sharma put in 66 runs for the fourth wicket. But Mansi Joshi cleaned up Deepti in the 12th over. Then, Kim garth came back into the attack and removed dangerous Navgire(53 off 43) and Simran Shaikh on the back-to-back deliveries and completed her fifer. Devika Vaidya also could only contribute a little.
The equation was 63 runs in the last 5 overs when Sophie Ecclestone joined Grace Harris in the Middle. But the turning point was the 18th over from Kim Garth. Harris scored 20 runs with 4 boundaries. Then managed to get 14 runs in the next over.
Equation came down to 21 off the last over. Harris sent the first one out, bringing the equation down to 13 off 5. She smashed the 3rd ball to the boundary. Then successfully reviewed for the wide ball. The 4th delivery also went for a boundary due to sloppy fielding work in the deep. Then Grace completed the thrilling chase by smashing the fifth delivery of the final over for a sixer. She pulled an almost impossible heist with her 59 runs for 26 deliveries, including seven fours and three sixes.
Delhi thrashed Banglore by 60 runs
Delhi Capitals thrashed the Royal Challengers Banglore by 60 runs in the second Women’s Premier League match at CCI’s Brabourne Stadium. DC Captain Meg Lanning (72), Shefali Verma (84), and Marizanne Kapp (39) help them reach a mammoth total of 223 runs. However, star-studded RCB couldn’t handle the scoreboard pressure; they only managed to score 163 for 8 at the end of their 20 overs. Tara Norris picked fifer for just 29 runs. Bangalore will face upbeat Mumbai in their next game.
