UP Warriorz notch second win, beat MI by 22 runs: WPL
Captain Meg Lanning and fellow Australian Phoebe Litchfield struck dominating half centuries to set up UP Warriorz’s comprehensive 22-run win over defending champions Mumbai Indians in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) here on Saturday. With the win, UP Warriorz stamped their dominance over Mumbai Indians in the WPL season 4 as they had also beaten the same opponents by seven wickets on Thursday.
This was Mumbai’s third loss in five matches while UP Warriorz notched up their second win in five games. Sent in to bat, Lanning (70) and Litchfield (61) made Mumbai bowling look ordinary with their impressive batting and shared 119 runs for the second wicket off just 76 balls to take UP Warriorz to 187 for 8. Chasing 188, Mumbai struggled all throughout with their top batters failing to make it count.
Openers Hayley Matthews (13) and Sajeevan Sajana (10) fell at the same team score of 23 while one-down Nat Sciver-Brunt (15) and Nicola Carey (6) were also dismissed in quick succession. Harleen Deol, who scored a match-winning 64 not out in Warriorz’s 7-wicket win over the same opponents on Thursday, took a stunning diving catch to get rid of in-form Carey. Mumbai were 62 for 4 at the halfway mark, needing more than 12 runs an over to overhaul the target.
To make matters worse for Mumbai, captain Harmanpreet Kaur (18) was out in the 11th over off the bowling of Chloe Tryon. By then, Mumbai were 69 for 5 and their run chase had gone haywire. But Amanjot Kaur (41 off 24 balls) and Amelia Kerr (49 not out off 28 balls) gave a valiant late resistance with a 83-run partnership for the sixth wicket but it was too late in the day.
Mumbai ended at 165 for 6 in 20 overs to lose the match. Shikha Pandey, who conceded just 3 runs in the penultimate over and also took one wicket, was the most successful UP Warriorz’s bowler with figures of 2/30. Earlier, UP Warriorz’s opener Kiran Navgire failed for the fifth time, getting out in the opening over for a first-ball duck.
She wasted one more chance after scores of 1, 5, 0, 10 as she attempted to drive an inswinging delivery from Nicola Carey only to see her wickets cart-wheeling. UP Warriorz's players celebrate a wicket during the Women's Premier League (WPL) T20 cricket match between Mumbai Indians and UP Warriorz, at the DY Patil Stadium, in Navi Mumbai.
