In the current Women's Premier League, Gujarat Giants suffered their second straight defeat after falling to Alyssa Healy's UP Warriorz by three wickets in a nail-biting match. On Sunday, March 5, the two teams squared off in the third game of the competition at the Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai.
Gujarat was without its team captain Beth Mooney after her injury in the opening game dealt the team a severe blow. The Giants chose to bat first after winning the toss, under the captaincy of Sneh Rana. Since rookie Sophia Dunkley was run out of the game after 13 runs, the team was unable to get off to the necessary start. Nonetheless, Harleen Deol's innings gave them a significant push to reach a respectable score in the allotted 20 overs of the match. At a strike rate of 143.75, the batter scored 46 runs off 32 balls, including seven boundaries. Gujarat Giants finished with a score of 169 runs on the board despite the rest of the team posting poor performances.
Kiran Navgire of the Warriorz put up a fight during the run chase in response to the total in order to carry out a rescue task. Momentarily, Kiran's half-century gave the team optimism that they may win, but as the wickets continued to fall at regular intervals, Kiran too gave in to the pressure. In the first 90 runs of the game, the team lost six wickets, tipping the balance in favor of the opposition. However, an unbroken partnership of 70 runs between Grace Harris and Sophie Ecclestone rapidly resurrected their performance, and they went on to win the match by three wickets with one ball left.
Brief Scores: Gujarat Giants 169/6 (Deol 46; Ecclestone 2-25) lost to UP Warriorz 175/7 in 19.5 overs (Harris 59, Navgire 53; Garth 5-36) by three wickets