The Gujarat Giants-Mumbai Indians clash still remains a one-sided contest. Harmanpreet Kaur and Co. ensured that after securing a five-wicket win over the home side at the Kotambi International Stadium here in Vadodara on Tuesday.
Nat Sciver-Brunt’s heroics with the bat and ball were enough for MI to chase down the 121-run target with 23 balls to spare. The England all-rounder picked two wickets for 27 runs and brought up a second consecutive half-century to wrap up MI’s authoritative performance.
On a fresh new pitch, the Giants were able to cause early damage, dismissing Hayley Matthews off Tanuja Kanwer’s bowling. The opener, who took a three-wicket haul, hammered it straight to Harleen Deol at square leg off the left-arm spinner’s delivery.
GG’s fielding effort fluctuated throughout but Priya Mishra and Kashvee Gautham gave the team a shot at fighting back. The youngsters got two scalps apiece, with the spinner getting the prized one of an in-form Sciver-Brunt (57 off 39 balls) and Kashvee Gautham trapping both, skipper Harmanpreet and Amelia Kerr, leg before.
But the match was far from Giants’ grasp as S. Sajana and debutant G. Kamalini sealed the deal with back-to-back fours. The Ashleigh Gardner-led side couldn’t do much to change its fate after a disappointing showing with the bat.
RECAP | GG vs MI Highlights
The Harmanpreet-led side had GG tottering within the first six overs, removing its powerful top-order for bleak scores. Sciver-Brunt drew first blood, deceiving Beth Mooney with a cutter that took her outside edge and found Sanskriti Gupta at backward point.
Hayley Matthews of Mumbai Indians celebrates the wicket of Kashvee Gautam of Gujarat Giants during match 5 of the Women’s Premier League 2025 (WPL) between The Gujarat Giants and The Mumbai Indians held at the BCA Stadium, Vadodara, India on the 18th February 2025.
| Photo Credit:
Sportzpics for WPL
Hayley Matthews of Mumbai Indians celebrates the wicket of Kashvee Gautam of Gujarat Giants during match 5 of the Women’s Premier League 2025 (WPL) between The Gujarat Giants and The Mumbai Indians held at the BCA Stadium, Vadodara, India on the 18th February 2025.
| Photo Credit:
Sportzpics for WPL
The MI bowler struck again, this time claiming the crucial wicket of Gardner. The skipper, riding on the back of consecutive half-centuries, could only add 10 runs before mistiming a slower ball to Sajana at deep mid-wicket.
Amelia Kerr, who had taken a brilliant catch off Hayley Matthews to send Dayalan Hemalatha packing, got the big scalp of Deandra Dottin to further deepen the Giants’ woes. The West Indies all-rounder swung at the ball but it was collected swiftly by keeper Yastika Bhatia who took the bails off.
Kashvee had started to pick up the pace with Harleen, adding 24 runs for the sixth wicket. But the former’s miscued sweep off Matthews’ tossed-up delivery scraped her bat enough for Yastika to win a caught-behind appeal.
Simran Shaikh couldn’t make most of the reprieve and handed Kerr an easy catch at deep mid-wicket after being dropped in a similar situation. Harleen (32 off 31 balls) held fort for the Giants with a composed knock of 32 off 31 but holed out to Matthews at deep backward square leg, dashing any hope the Giants had of putting on a defendable total.
