WPL 2025: Gujarat Giants Women vs Mumbai Indians Women, Match 5 - Who Said What?

Gujarat Giants clashed with Mumbai Indians in Match 5 of the Women's Premier League 2025 at the Kotambi Stadium, Vadodara on Tuesday, February 18. MI-W won the toss and elected to field first.

GJ-W had a terrible start as they kept on losing wickets in the powerplay, ending with 28/4 in six overs. The story of the innings was more or less the same as they were bundled up for 120 in their 20 overs. Harleen Deol (32 off 31) and Kashvee Gautam (20 off 15) were the best performers for Gujarat. For Mumbai, Hayley Matthews was the standout bowler with figures of 3/16 in her four overs.

MI-W started off steadily, scoring 37/1 at the end of the powerplay. Nearly everyone contributed usefully to the partnerships, supporting Nat Sciver-Brunt who held the innings together with 57 runs off 39 balls. Mumbai, in the end, won comfortably with five wickets in hand and 23 balls to spare.

Also Read - WPL 2025: Why is MI-W bowler Saika Ishaque not playing against GJ-W? - Explained

Talking Points from Match 5 of WPL 2025:

1. Mumbai bowlers rock the Gujarat top order

The Mumbai bowlers took the reins of the match in their hands when they dismissed the top four in the powerplay itself. Tactically sound bowling ensured the batters could not get away. For Gujarat, it became a task to rebuild the innings and set a defendable target. 

2. Matthews with a match-winning performance

The West Indian legend Hayley Matthews bowled brilliantly in the first innings, scalping crucial wickets and finishing with enviable figures of 3/16 in four overs. When it comes to batting she provided a key contribution of 17 runs. For her all-round performance, she was rewarded with the Player of the Match award.

3. Sciver-Brunt - The mainstay of Mumbai's batting

Nat Sciver-Brunt's innings of 59 runs off 39 balls, laced with 11 fours, was rock-solid. She was at the crease for almost the entirety of the second innings and ensured that Mumbai did not lose its way completely at any stage. Her experience came in handy in avoiding a potential defeat.

Who Said What?

Losing skipper, Ashleigh Gardner

We lost wickets in clumps and we put a lot of onus on the top order to score a lot of runs and it wasn't to be today. We could not adjust fast enough when we batted and Shabnim bowled really quick there it seemed a bit faster in the first 10 overs and I don't think we adjusted overly fast and they bowled well. We have got a nice little break, a week, got time to reset and there are lot of positives to take from these three games and the younger players are shining which is so important to us. The younger players love stepping into the field and bowling and you could see the passion in the way they celebrate the wickets as well. Hopefully we can put the perfect game going forward.

Winning skipper, Harmanpreet Kaur

Whatever we talked about in the team meetings, we executed. Really happy everything went according to our plans. The first six overs are very important. Our bowlers did a great job. We picked the right bowlers to bowl (in the first six overs) and that gave us a stable start. (On what they need to do this season, being played across multiple venues) Be more consistent. We have a great team, a balanced side and we need to keep doing the right things again and again.

Player of the Match, Hayley Matthews

That's just cricket sometimes (hitting a loosener straight to the fielder). Happy to get a couple away, but would've loved to carry the innings on for longer. The conditions suited me well. There definitely was a bit of turn for me. Just keeping the stumps in play. Obviously had the long boundary and wanted to have the batters hit to that side. The close ones always hurt the most. We got into a position in that match where we could've won it. At the same time, we were very hungry today to turn it around.