WPL 2024, Match 14: UP Warriorz Women vs Mumbai Indians Women, Fourteenth Match - Who Said What?

Mumbai Indians Women (MI-W) bounced back to winning ways in the Women's Premier League (WPL) 2024 with a  42-run win over UP Warriorz in Match 14 on Thursday, March 7 at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi. After opting to bat first, MI posted a good score of 160/6 in their allotted 20 overs. In reply, UP could only reach 118/9 in their 20 overs and lost fourth game of the season.

Their chase got off to a miserable start as Saika Ishaque disturbed Kiran Navgire's (7 off 8) in the second over itself to give first blow to UP. Hayley Matthews and Shabnim Ismail also joined the party by getting big scalps of Chamari Athapaththu (3 off 5) and Alyssa Healy (3 off 9) respectively.

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To pile on the misery for UP, Grace Harris (15 off 23), Shweta Sehrawat (17 off 15) and Poonam Khemnar (7 off 10) also failed to get going leaving them reeling at 69/7 after 14.4 overs. Deepti Sharma fought valiantly all alone with a magnificent knock of 53* (36). However, that didn't prove to be enough to save her side from a heavy defeat.

Earlier in the day, Mumbai Indians (MI-W) got off to a miserable start losing their opener Hayley Matthews (4 off 3) in the second over itself. They further lost Yastika Bhatia (9 off 13) in the fourth over which left them reeling at 17/2 after 3.4 overs. After the two early blows, captain Harmanpreet Kaur (33 off 30) and Nat Sciver-Brunt (45 off 31) bailed their team out of trouble with a crucial 59-run stand off 46 balls.

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Amelia Kerr and S Sajana finished MI's innings on a high

Their partnership was broken by Rajeshwari Gayakwad who dismantled Sciver Brunt’s stumps in the 12^th over while Harmanpreet was cleaned up by Saima Thakor. Following their dismissals, Amelia Kerr (39 off 23) and S Sajana (22* off 14) got involved in a 43-run stand off 26 balls and helped MI finish on 160/6 in their allotted 20 overs.

Here’s what the two captains and the Player of the Match said after the game:

Winning Captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, Mumbai Indians, said:

Initially thought we might be 20 runs short but we managed very well when they came out to bat. That partnership (between herself and Sciver-Brunt) was key, Sciver-Brunt batted really well, I was just rotating the strike. Kerr also batted really well but I thought they bowled well too, didn't give away too much. When we were batting, we knew that there was something in the pitch and that's what I told my bowlers. It wasn't a big total but I told them we could manage if we could put it in the right lengths.

Losing Captain, Alyssa Healy, UP Warriorz, said:

I thought Mumbai executed really well with the ball. Not a great start losing three wickets with the bat. We have been working really hard, the nature of the competition is such that it does not give you much time to work hard. We have dropped a couple of catches in almost every game and that has cost us. We had watched the conditions a lot on TV but didn't assess it on the day, but we move on and come back stronger tomorrow. It would be nice for the top four to be scoring runs, but happy Deepti is getting the runs right through the tournament.

Player of the Match, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Mumbai Indians said:

Very happy, we wanted to put some things right from the last game. Probably didn't get off to the best of starts but decent total in the end. We sort of knew it was going to be a bit low but you're not really sure until you play on it. We wanted to get up to 160 because we knew it was such a quick outfield. I like playing off the backfoot. Very happy with that (wicket off the slower ball), it's a change-up I've been working on. Getting a couple of wickets at that point was a bit of a bonus, was good to restrict them to that total and hopefully do something for our run-rate.