On Thursday, March 6, the Mumbai Indians Women (MI-W) played the UP Warriorz (UPW) at the Ekana Cricket Stadium. The MI-W prevailed by six wickets in their matchup with the other team.
Harmanpreet Kaur, the captain of the Mumbai Indians, chose to field first against the hosts after winning the toss. UP Warriorz had an extremely successful powerplay, taking their side to fifty. Georgia Voll was the more aggressive of the two, and it was a significantly different start than the opening batswomen’s. Grace Harris played 22 balls for just 21 whereas Voll had rushed to 24 from 14 balls. A large total was promised after a seventh over of 12 runs. The final delivery of the eighth over produced the first breakthrough of the evening.
UP lost nine wickets and reached 150 at the end of their innings. Kerr was out on the final ball of the third over, although he smashed a couple of boundaries in the first two overs of the run chase. That didn’t stop Nat Sciver-Brunt and Hayley Matthews from working together to score a spectacular stand. In a partnership that changed the course of the match by 92 runs, they both lowered the target rate needed to less than one run per ball. To provide some respite to UP, the two left in consecutive overs.
Talking Points
1. A fight between Sophie Ecclestone and Harmanpreet Kaur
When the umpire informed Harmanpreet Kaur that they could only have three players outside the circle in the last over because of the sluggish over-rate, the incident occurred at the end of the 19th over. The MI captain became upset about it and began to argue with the umpire. Since she was meant to ball the final over, Amelia Kerr was also upset.
2. The shortest version of Amelia Kerr’s first fifer
Amelia Kerr put the brakes on just as the UP Warriorz Women were about to end on a high note. She claimed up to five wickets by taking out UP’s entire middle order by herself. She dismissed dangerous batsman Deepti Sharma for 27 off 25 balls after taking out Kiran Navgire for her first wicket.
3. In an exciting chase, Hayley Matthews spearheads Mumbai’s attack.
Hayley Matthews led the Mumbai Indians Women with a spectacular start to the chase. Matthews and Nat Sciver-Brunt anchored the innings with a 100-run partnership, despite losing Amelia Kerr on 10 off 13.
Who Said What?
Harmanpreet Kaur, MI Women’s winning skipper said:
They batted really well, we were not able to use the conditions in the first six overs. We knew we just needed one wicket to come back into the game. The opportunity came at the right moment. (On Kerr) She’s always looking to get wickets, today she bowled really well and got all the crucial wickets. (Opening pair) We’re quite flexible, we have to prepare really well, today we went with what was best for us. All the games, we try to stay together. Really happy with the way we played today.
Deepti Sharma, UP Warrioz’s losing skipper said:
We are doing back-to-back mistakes in the middle-order, our top-order and lower-order are doing well, we need to look at the middle-order. But we have positives too and it was nice to see Voll perform with the bat tonight. We had a lot of expectations on the middle-order batters and let’s hope for the best in the last game. As a player, I always think about how to improve myself in every department. But I’m learning all the time as to how I can do better in the next game.
Hayley Matthews, Player of the Match said:
(Best she has batted this season?) Yeah, I think so, probably had one other fifty but that felt a lot more scratchy than today. Really good to get to the crease and felt like I was flowing quite well. (Bowling plan) We just wanted to stay really calm. We had a lot of discussions prior to the match about them probably being the better powerplay side with the bat. They did get off to a really good start. Just staying calm as a team and knowing that we can catch up, which is exactly what we did do. (On the surface) Pretty good to bowl on as an offspinner, turn and bounce on the wicket. Fortunately, when I went to bat, a bit of dew came on and the ball was sliding on a bit. It was really good to play a match here but obviously super excited to get over to Mumbai and finish off our group stage matches.
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