Mumbai Indians take on the UP Warrioz in Match 10 of the Women’s Premier League at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.
While UP Women stand third in the points table with four points, Harmanpreet’s Mumbai has gone unscathed in the tournament winning all their matches.
The UP Warriorz led by Alyssa Healy started off on a high but had to fiddle with the pieces to get the puzzle right after going down in their second match.
The Warriorz season opener against Gujarat Giants saw pacer Kim Garth take a five-wicket haul and dismiss UP’s top-order. While most players, including the likes of Healy and Tahlia McGrath fell early, India International, Kiran Navgire showcased her skills by scoring a half-century before succumbing to Garth’s pace.
Navgire’s batting also becomes noteworthy given her team could find no answers for the Giants’ bowling on the day. Supporting Navgire at the end was all-rounder Grace Harris who stunned the crowd with her unbeaten 26 ball 59.
The next match against the Delhi Capitals saw more players in the team come forward to chip in, alas, to no avail. But UP would’ve grown in confidence with a stellar 90 runs scored by McGrath. Devika Vaidya and Alyssa Healy also showed better form. While a few players fell to spin, pace bowling was emerging as a trope.
Against RCB in the last match with a meagre 139 to chase openers Healy (96 off 47) and Devika Vaidya (36 off 31) dint ruffle any feathers as they finished the job for the team.
While UP go into the next match with a win in the bag they would want to see their Indian players Deepti Sharma and Shweta Sherawat contribute with the bat and perhaps put up a performance similar to the one they are known for in Indian colours.
All bases covered
Contributing with the bat, however, hasn’t been an issue for Mumbai Indians. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side won by a huge margin in its first match against the Giants, 143 runs to put it in perspective. Harmanpreet led from the front with a rather easy looking 65 and following suit with 40-plus scores were Amelia Kerr and Hayley Matthews.
The next match against RCB turned out to be a walk in the park again as they chased down 155 in 14.4 overs and 9 wickets to spare. This time Nat Sciver-Brunt was amongst the runs as well, coming at number three she scored a scintillating half-century while opener Matthews made 77.
Yastika Bhatia too played her part and proved her credentials with the bat. While the Mumbai camp has enjoyed a largely unobstructed walk to the top, their issues against spin can turn into an opportunity for the UP Warrioz especially if Deepti Sharma comes to the party.
UP’s campaign started with its experienced spin bowlers Deepti Sharma and Sophie Ecclestone picking up two wickets each against the Giants.
With most teams failing against spin, Warriorz would have liked the two to perform with some consistency. However, in their second match, they scraped through with three of their bowlers taking one wicket each, while Sophie and Deepti dint do any damage with the ball.
But as mentioned before the puzzle came together for the Warrioz in their third match against RCB, which also saw Deepti show a glimpse of her lethal bowling, picking up three wickets as Sophie Ecclestone trumped her dismissing four players.
For Mumbai, off-spinner Saika Ishaque has been a great find, one who has delivered at every instance also giving Harmanpreet an Indian bowling option with most of the wickets coming from overseas players like Nat Sciver-Brunt, Amelia Kerr and Hayley Matthews.
Saika picked up four wickets in her maiden big-league match when Mumbai took on Gujarat in the league opener- a sign of things to come.
She delivered the goods in the next few matches as well picking up two wickets in the next match against RCB as well and topping that off with three wickets against a very strong Delhi Capitals.