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We now come to the conclusion of our coverage of the 2024 Women's Premier League for the day. The UP Warriorz and the Delhi Capitals face each other at the Chinnaswamy Stadium tomorrow - join us right here on Sportskeeda for our coverage of the same, and as always, a whole lot more! This is Rajarshi Das, signing off on behalf of Pradeep Somasekhar. Good night!
Two wins on the trot for the defending champions - the Mumbai Indians have sure started their defence of the title on the perfect note! There's a couple of issues for them to address, though, but with the kind of think-tank they possess in their camp, and the names on that squad list, the Mumbai Indians will be eager to look into them and get them right. Plenty to ponder for the Gujarat Giants after their first game - of course, there's almost the entirety of the league stage remaining, but they'll be keen on improving their ground fielding, and have a discussion on the ideal entry point for some of their batters.
Amelia Kerr is the Player Of The Match! No surprises there - 4 wickets to go with 31 crucial runs! Here's what she has to say: When you're bowling later on in the innings, sometimes you can get hit or pick up wickets. It's about picking the conditions, different variations, they managed to come out all right, and so, just managed to pick up some wickets at the end. The way Shabs (Ismail) started us off, that helped us stay on top. (On her googly) It's something that I've bowled throughout my entire career and want to keep developing, I practiced it a lot as well as my leg spinner, I think it's a very important delivery, especially against left-hander in T20 cricket. It was just about playing good shots, playing along the ground, when you're batting with Harman, her experience helps. Just about backing my game and playing low-risk cricket. Amazing franchise to play for, amazing group of people to play with. That's what I enjoy the most here. There's some match-winners, and we're fortunate to have so many of them. Nice to see different people step up different times.
Harmanpreet Kaur, Mumbai Indians captain: We have a very balanced side, all the all-rounder are the best in their country. When you have the luxury, you get to enjoy the game. Shabnim's been great so far, whenever she's got the opportunity to contribute she's done great. Others are supporting her when she's doing so great. Our bowlers are complementing each other well, so that's a positive when we go for fielding. We are just going with the best match-ups, when you have such a long bowling line-up you need to pick the best matchups. They're doing really well and I am really proud of them. We want the top order to give us a solid start, they're understanding the situations and conditions, and they will bounce back.
Shabnim Ismail: Ya 100%, went back to Cape Town and worked with my bowling coach, worked with the shape of the ball, it worked out wonders today and we have the momentum, being with the winning side is a great feeling. I still want to be quickest in the world, working on hitting 130 click, I'm still working as hard as I can. Worked a lot on bowling in powerplays, that has helped the team so far. Me and Hayley, we know very well each other and it was a great catch. I don't like to put pressure on myself, I want to keep it simple, do my thing and I always tell the girls that, her success is my success and her success is my success. It had nice carry, thought it would be more quicker but there was subtle movement too. Went tad more fuller and that brought the success for me.
Beth Mooney (Gujarat Giants captain): Was nervous this week as it was against Mumbai, but got through unscathed. We let ourselves down in the first 10 overs, credit has to go to TK and Bryce, we were 20 runs short to have any real shot at Mumbai. Bryce was very good, great find for us and she has a nice swing with the bat and good with the ball, hopefully it's a sign of things to come for her. Sometimes you got to take the result out of it, especially when it's a new team, we take the positives out of it and move on. You can't dwell too much, there isn't much time in such tournaments. From my point of view, we have a great bunch of girls, it's a day off tomorrow and will move on to the next match.
Match summary:
Mumbai Indians win by 5 wickets with 11 balls to spare
Fun fact - the six hit by Harmanpreet Kaur to seal the game was the only one in the Mumbai Indians innings. Tells you a tale in itself, that, doesn't it? The Mumbai Indians were on course to get the job done in quick time, but the run out of Natalie Sciver-Brunt slowed down proceedings. Harmanpreet Kaur and Amelia Kerr steered the ship rather cautiously but safely, brought the equation down to under a run-a-ball, and took Mumbai Indians to safety in the process.
There was a couple of wickets very late in the piece with Kerr and Vastrakar departing in back-to-back overs, but it was too late for the Gujarat Giants. Their ground fielding left a whole lot to be desired - there were heaps of buzzers and poor efforts at catching just when the Giants were in need of some tidiness in the field having picked up a wicket or two. The negativity with the ground fielding seeped into the bowlers, and even though there were a couple of tight overs in between, the breakthrough never really came - the batters got to play safe and pinch ones and twos with ease.
The Giants kept themselves in it with back-to-back wickets of both openers halfway into the powerplay after Yastika Bhatia and Hayley Matthews got the Mumbai Indians off to a decent start. Both batters perished trying to force the scoring and picked the fielders out. It was then that the Giants needed some discipline on the field - barring the work done by Tanuja Kanwar and Beth Mooney to dismiss Natalie Sciver-Brunt, there was very little to talk about.
Harmanpreet Kaur almost took the Mumbai Indians past the line last time around - she gets the job done today. She won't be too pleased with the delay in chasing this total down, though - we'll hear from her shortly, stay tuned for the presentations...
It sure did take them quite a while to get there, but the Mumbai Indians get their second win, having chased down a target once again!
18.1 Sneh Rana to Harmanpreet Kaur, SIX! GAME, SET AND MATCH! Mumbai Indians make it two in two, their title defense has begun really well this season. Length delivery on the fourth stump, in the slot and Kaur sits on one knee and clubbed it all the way over wide long-on for a maximum to finish things in style.
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M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru
