On Friday, the Women’s Premier League champion Mumbai Indians defeated the Delhi Capitals with the stunning performances of Amelia Kerr and Harmanpreet. At M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday, they defeated the Gujarat Giants, who finished worst in the inaugural season.
Thanks to Harmanpreet Kaur’s perfect 46 on a difficult course, MI was able to chase 127. The chase ended when Kaur hit the lone six of the inning. In the final overs, Kaur helped MI survive since the GG bowlers had nothing left to defend.
After a heroic bowling effort, Amelia Kerr hit 31 and Nat-Sciver Brunt struck 22 to help MI in the chase.
MI needed 18.1 overs to score and had won two straight matches by a margin of five wickets before accounting for GG. GG had the lowest five-team point total in WPL I. In WPL 2, the team started off brightly despite making eleven changes.
Harmanpreet decided to take the field first after winning the toss. Shabnim Ismail had already caught Veda Krishnamurthy’s leg in the opening over. After two difficult seasons, she was taken aback to be matched with 22-year-old Karnataka captain Beth Mooney.
The South African sailor, Ismail, applied pressure to Mooney and Phoebe Litchfield, 20, after first compressing Harleen Doel’s seventh leg. Mooney (24 off 22 balls) advanced when Nat Sciver-Brunt caught Litchfield (₹1 crore) for seven runs.
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Spinner Hayley Mathews brought back Dayalan Hemalatha (8), bringing GG to 55/4. It looked like GG might not reach 100 after Beth Mooney was out for 58/5 in 10.1 overs. Before they bowled, GG was headed by Scottish import Kathryn Bryce (25 not out, 24 balls) and Tanuja Kanwar (28 off, 21 balls).
Still, Amelia Kerr, a young leg spinner from New Zealand, got the last four wickets, starting with Ashleigh Gardner (15) in the 14th over. MI took control after stumping Tanuja and another bowler.
There were insufficient runs (126) to assess MI. MI went down to 49/3 in 7.4 overs when Nat Sciver-Brunt (22 from 18 balls) departed the game. Hayley Mathews (7) and Yastika Bhatia (7) both lost easy wickets. Thanks to hits from Amelia Kerr (31 off 25 balls) and Harmanpreet (46*, 41 balls), who relieved pressure, MI triumphed with 66 runs for the fourth wicket with 11 balls left.
Ahmedabad Giants lost to Mumbai Indians 126/9 (Kathryn Bryce 25, Tanuja Kanwar 28, Shabnim Ismail 3/18, Amelia Kerr 4/117); Mumbai Indians defeated Ahmedabad Giants 129/5 in 18.1 overs (Harmanpreet Kaur 46*, Amelia Kerr 31, by 5 wickets).
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