Australian all-rounder Grace Harris turned the tables and guided UP Warriorz to a victory that looked nearly impossible to achieve. In the 3rd match of the Women's Premier League, Team UP opened their campaign on a high note by beating Gujarat Giants by 3 wickets on Sunday. On the other hand, Team Gujarat faced their back-to-back second loss in the tournament after they lost to Mumbai Indians in the opening match by 143 runs. Grace Harris 59 (26) and Sophie Ecclestone 22 (12) shifted the momentum to register victory in a nail-biting thriller at the DY Patil Stadium, Mumbai.
Coming to bat first, Gujarat registered a score of 169/6 with Harleen Deol scoring 46 off 32 balls. On the other hand, Kiran Navgire 53 (43) stabilized UP's innings after their top-batting order collapsed. The match was inclined towards Gujarat for a long time but during the last 3 overs, the situation changed completely. In the last over of the game, UP needed 19 runs to win and they had also lost 7 wickets. But Harris along with Ecclestone stood on the field and snatched this match from Gujarat with her brilliant performance.
Here's how last over looks like -
- 6
- Wide
- 2
- 4
- Wide
- 4
- 6
In the match, Gujarat Giants captain Sneh Rana won the toss and decided to bat. While Deepti Sharma and Sophie Ecclestone took 2-2 wickets and Anjali Sarwani and Talia McGrath took one wicket each for Team UP. Chasing the target of 170 runs, the start of the UP Warriors team was not good. The team lost 7 wickets till the score of 105. But in the end, a magical 59 by Grace Harris turned the match around and UP defeated Gujarat.
Brief scores:
- Gujarat Giants 169/6 in 20 overs (Harleen Deol 46, Ashleigh Gardner 25; Sophie Ecclestone 2/25, Deepti Sharma 2/27).
- UP Warriorz: 175/7 in 19.5 overs (Kiran Navgire 53, Grace Harris 59 n.o.; Kim Garth 5/36)
