Warriors seal playoff berth after Grace Harris’s strong innings beats Giants
Apart from Grace Harris’s aggressive innings of 72 runs in 41 balls, Tahlia McGrath (57 runs in 38 balls) shared 78 runs for the fourth wicket and 42 runs for the sixth wicket with Sophie Eccleston (19 not out in 13 balls). UP Warriors registered a thrilling three-wicket win with a ball to spare over Gujarat Giants in their Women’s Premier League match here on Monday. With this victory of the Warriors, the team of Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore were out of the title race. Along with the Warriors, the teams of Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals confirmed their place in the playoffs.
Batting first, the Giants team scored 178 runs for six wickets. Warriors scored 181 runs for three wickets in 19.5 overs and won the playoff ticket along with the match. Grace turned the match with seven fours and four sixes in his innings. When she was returning to the pavilion after catching Harleen Deol off Kim Garth, the team’s score was 172 runs. With the Warriors needing seven runs in the last over, Simran Sheikh was run out and needed two runs from the last two balls.
Eccleston struck a boundary off Sneh Rana (one for 47) to knock Gujarat out of the title race. The team of UP Warriors had lost three wickets for 39 runs in the fifth over. After this, McGrath did not let the pressure on Grace while batting aggressively. He pulled the team out of difficult situations by hitting 11 fours in his 38-ball innings. Defending the target, Monika Patel (1/27) gave the Giants a good start by picking up the wicket of Warriors captain Alyssa Healy (12) in the second over itself.
Kim Garth (2/29) followed by Kiran Navagire (4) and Tanuja Kanwar (1/32) before Devika Vaidya (7) was dismissed. After this the Giants players failed to hold on to the match and Harris stitched a brilliant partnership with McGraw to ensure the team’s victory. Earlier, a brilliant 93-run partnership between D Hemlata (57 off 33 balls) and Ashley Gardner (60 off 39 balls) helped Gujarat Giants post a big score.
Hemlata hit six fours and three sixes in her 33-ball innings. Gardner also hit the same number of fours and sixes in his aggressive innings. Parshvi Chopra broke this partnership by dismissing Hemlata. Parshvi then got Gardner stumped by Alyssa Healy. Earlier, South African openers Laura Wolvaardt and Sophia Dunkley got the team off to a brisk start with a 41-run partnership in the first four overs.
Wolvaardt hit a four against Anjali Sarwani on the third ball of the innings itself. He showed aggressive attitude by hitting a six against Rajeshwari Gaikwad. After this, Dunkley hit some attractive fours. Anjali gave the first success to the team by bowling Woolwardt on the first ball of the fifth over. In the very next over, Rajeshwari dismissed Dunkley and Harleen Deol (four runs) to give Warriors double success. The team lost three wickets in nine runs, which made the score 50 for three after the powerplay.
These wickets, however, had no effect on the Giants’ run rate. With the aggressive batting of Hemlata and Gardner, the team completed 100 runs in the 11th over. The Warriors, however, took the wickets of Hemlata, Gardner and Ashwani Kumari in the last four overs to restrict the team to 180 runs. Rajeshwari Gaikwad and Parshvi Chopra took two wickets each for Warriors. Anjali and Eccleston got one success each.
