Gujarat Giants vs UP Warriorz, Match 3, WPL 2023 - Best memes from the game

UP Warriorz won the thrilling match by three wickets.

Published - 05 Mar 2023, 23:18 IST | Updated - 05 Mar 2023, 22:47 IST

11 Min Read

After the historic curtain raiser game of the Women’s Premier League on March 4, the fans got treated with a doubleheader on the second day of the premier women’s T20 competition in India. After Delhi Capitals steamrolled Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first game of the day, UP Warriorz and Gujarat Giants locked horns in the second game at Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, Navi Mumbai on Sunday, March 5.

Learning from their mistakes in the first match, Giants won the toss and decided to bat first. Opener Sabbineni Meghana got her team off to a decent start scoring 24 off 15 balls. However, Giants lost both their openers Meghana and Sophia Dunkley inside the powerplay and were 38/2 inside six overs.

Harleen Deol, who walked in at no 3, held one end and took the innings forward. While she kept on moving the scoreboard forward, wickets continued to tumble at the other end as Annabel Sutherland and Sushma Verma returned to the pavilion cheaply.

Deol found a good partner in Ashleigh Gardner with the duo puting on a 44-run stand for the fifth wicket in 29 balls. Gardner departed after scoring 25 off 19 while Deol fell four runs short of her half-century getting dismissed for 46 off 32 balls. Dayalan Hemalatha and Sneh Rana did the finishing job and took Giants to the score of 169/6 in their allotted 20 overs.

From the Warriorz, Deepti Sharma and Sophie Ecclestone picked up two wickets each while Anjali Sarvani and Tahila McGrath picked up one wicket each.

During their chase, Warriorz got off to the worst possible start as they lost their captain Alyssa Healy, Shweta Sehrawat, and Tahila McGrath in the third over of the innings. Seamer Kim Garth wreaked havoc with the ball picking up all three wickets and leaving Warriorz reeling at 20/3 after three overs.

Grace Harris stars in thrilling chase for UP Warriorz

Kiran Navgire took the innings forward and stitched a 66-run stand with Deepti Sharma for the fourth wicket in 54 balls. However, they couldn’t take their partnership ahead as both were dismissed in consecutive overs.

Navgire played a gutsy knock of 53 off 43 balls but no other batter could support her till she was at the crease in the run chase. Kim Garth was making the ball talk as she took the important scalp of Navgire and further dismissed Simran Shaikh to complete her five-wicket haul.

As Warriors were 105/7 after 16.4 overs, it looked like that the game was done and dusted. However, Grace Harris and Sophie Ecclestone had other ideas. Harris led the charge and smacked three consecutive boundaries in Kim Garth's last over as she finished with figures of 5/36.

Both Ecclestone and Harris kept finding boundaries and brought their team to the cusp of victory with 19 runs needed off the last over. Harris held her nerves and took Warriorz over the line with her game-changing innings of 59* off 26 balls smashing seven fours and three sixes.

She was well supported by Ecclestone who scored 22 off 12 balls as the duo put on a match winning partnership of 70 runs off just 25 balls. As a result, UP Warriorz won the thrilling match by three wickets and got their campaign off to a winning start.