UP Warriorz continued their resurgence with a dominant six-wicket win over struggling Gujarat Giants in the eighth game of the Women's Premier League 2024 on Friday. Sophie Ecclestone shone with three wickets to restrict Gujarat to 142 and then Grace Harris smashed 60* off just 33 balls to help Warriorz win their second game of the season.
A win boosted UP Warriorz to third place in the points table, on a level with Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore. Gujarat remain at the bottom of the table with three defeats in three games in WPL 2024.
After thrashing defending champions Mumbai in the last game, Warriorz continued the momentum with an impressive all-round performance. The legendary Sri Lankan all-rounder Chamari Athapaththu made her highly-anticipated WPL debut replacing Tahlia McGrath for UP Warriorz while South African star Laura Wolvaardt replaced Lea Tahuhu for the Giants.
Captain Beth Mooney and Wolvaardt gave the Ginats a positive start with a 40-run stand for the opening wickets. Ecclestone gave Warriorz a breakthrough in the sixth over with Mooney's wicket and also removed settled Wolvaardt in the tenth over.
Australian duo Phoebe Litchfield and Ashleigh Gardner added 52 runs for the fourth wicket but struggled to maintain a higher run rate. Ecclestone removed Gardner in the 19th over to deny Gujarat a strong finish. Litchfield top-scored with 35 off 26 balls and Gardner smashed 30 off just 17 balls.
Alyssa Healy gave her team an impressive start by smashing 33 off just 21 balls. Gujarat kept the game alive with Healy and Kiran Navgire's wickets in quick succession but were denied a comeback after Grace Harris' another monstrous knock.
Harris recorded a 30-ball fifty, her first half-century of the season, and contributed to an unbeaten 53-run stand for the fifth wicket with Deepti Sharma. Harris top-scored with 60 off just 30 balls and Deepti scored 17* to help UP chase down the target in just 15.4 overs.
Gujarat Giants Playing XI: Harleen Deol, Beth Mooney (c & wk), Laura Wolvaardt, Phoebe Litchfield, Ashleigh Gardner, Dayalan Hemalatha, Kathryn Bryce, Sneh Rana, Tanuja Kanwar, Mannat Kashyap, Meghna Singh
UP Warriorz Playing XI: Alyssa Healy (c & wk), Kiran Navgire, Chamari Athapaththu, Grace Harris, Deepti Sharma, Shweta Sehrawat, Poonam Khemnar, Saima Thakor, Sophie Ecclestone, Anjali Sarvani, Rajeshwari Gayakwad
