Gujarat Giants Women Vs UP Warriorz Women Highlights
Priya Mishra’s excellent three-wicket haul combined with Ashleigh Gardner’s fluent 52 took them to a resounding six-wicket win over UP Warriorz in their second home game of the WPL 2025. Their bowling and fielding performances made the Giants a far more competent unit, and coupled with sound innings contributions from Harleen Deol and Deandra Dottin thereafter, they chased down a target of modest 144 with 12 balls to spare in Vadodara.
The missing Alyssa Healy, who was hurt, and Chamari Athapaththu, who paved the way for Alana King meant that yes, Warriorz definitely lacked firepower at the top of the order. New captain Deepti Sharma’s 39 and a great bowling performance from Sophie Ecclestone were all for naught since the Giants came from the opening-day loss to Royal Challengers Bengaluru and duly got their scorecard ticking in the tournament.
Gardner carried on from where she left off, scoring yet another crucial fifty to give the Giants a resounding boost after they found themselves reduced to 2 for 2. Following her unbeaten 79 in the opener against RCB, Gardner, after just two overs, was called in after the early loss of Beth Mooney and D Hemalatha. By the third over, she had come into her own, dispatching the debutant fast-bowling allrounder Kranti Goud with two consecutive boundaries.
She was particularly savage on Saima Thakor, who spilled 20 runs in that penultimate over. Two of the three sixes were walloped into the trees, one over longer-on and the other over deep mid-wicket. For the third wicket, she had established a critical 55-run stand with Laura Wolvaardt.
She brought up her fifty off 28 balls, with a humongous six over deep square leg off Alana King after flicking away the previous ball to deep backward square leg for four. Overall, she hit five fours and three sixes.
Having amassed 131 runs in two matches with a sizzling strike rate of 195.52, Gardner is now the leading run-scorer of the tournament.
Dottin entered the scene and took immediate advantage by swinging her bat over midwicket to hit her first six against King, in the 12th―after Tahlia McGrath had removed Gardner, with the Giants needing 58 off 49 deliveries. In the next over, she used her power game to punish McGrath with two more fours, thus releasing pressure off Giants.
The dew factor and a few dropped catches didn’t help Warriorz either, as Deol also played the anchor role to keep the chase at a healthy run-rate. Deol made an unbeaten 34 off 30 balls while Dottin hit a quickfire 33 that included three fours and two sixes.
Earlier, with the ball, Dottin struck in the second over, dismissing Kiran Navgire with an inswinger and then knocked off Uma Chetry with a short ball in the tenth over, when Warriorz were just trying to steady the ship after a few early wickets.
Warriorz being 73 for 3 after 10 overs, and with McGrath and Grace Harris yet to come, they would have hoped for a lift-off. But Mishra landed a big blow by removing both the Australians in the span of three deliveries. For McGrath, she bowled a googly that skidded on in line of middle and off and scraped past the batter’s inside edge and struck the pad first, then was deflected off the bat and onto the pads. McGrath reviewed the lbw decision but that was turned down.
After the fall of a wicket, Mishra fed another googly that was flighted on the off side-Harris swung across the line with his bat only to be beaten on the inside edge with the ball crashing onto the stumps. Mishra was very vocal after an excellent performance with the ball.
Warriorz decided to open with Kiran Navgire and Vrinda Dinesh, who suffered a shoulder injury last season after four matches. But both did not leave any significant mark with Dottin and Gardner firing up the powerplay.
At No.3 Uma Chetry continued her struggle against a lot of deliveries, however, she used her bottom hand to effect some mighty boundaries to score 24 off 27. While Deepti paired up with Uma, together they shared a vital partnership of 51 runs to take the pressure off Warriorz after a shaky start. Unbeaten 88 against Giants last year from No.4 was the only other time Deepti had batted in limited-over situations before Sunday. She looked far better this time, scoring 39 off 27. Exhibiting her back-foot punching and pull shots, she definitely kept the scorecard ticking, together with her trademark sweep shots, throughout the middle overs. However, eventually, Deepti too fell to Mishra in the 15th over.
Thanks to a late flourish from Thakor and King at the end of the innings, Warriorz would be perennially a below par total.
Also Read: IPL 2025 Schedule
