The first ever season of the Women’s Premier League kicked off on Saturday. So far 3 games have been played and each and every passing moment has been one filled with excitement. Sunday was the first double header day as Delhi took on RCB in the afternoon. The evening game saw Gujarat take on UP, and the game turned out to be one roller coaster of a ride as far as emotions is concerned.
The story so far –
Gujarat Giants came into the game on Sunday after having lost the first game of the WPL 2023 to Mumbai Indians. For UP Wizards this was their 1st game and they wanted to make an immediate impact. Sneh Rana, replaced Beth Mooney as the skipper and won the toss and chose to bat first.
Healy effects one of the most freakiest stumpings –
The incident in question happened in the 2nd ball of the 16th over as Deepti Sharma was bowling to Ashleigh Gardener. The Australian went down the track to hit the ball for a maximum, but missed the ball in the process.
UP Wizards skipper and wicket keeper Alyssa Healy couldn’t take the ball cleanly, but the ball did ricochet off her helmet grill and hit the stumps. There was laughs all round as Healy got the wicket of Gardener who was looking dangerous on 25.
— WPL MAHARASTRA (@WMaharastra) March 5, 2023
Harleen Deol top scorers as Gujarat score 169 –
Batting first after winning the toss, S. Meghana and Dunkley scored 24 and 13 respectively. The top scorer for Gujarat Giants was Harleen Deol who scored 46 off 32 balls with 7 fours in her innings. Ashleigh Gardner with 25 off 19 balls and Hemalatha with 21* off 13 balls then helped Gujarat reach 169.
Grace Harris magical knock wins the game for UP wizards –
Chasing 170 to win, UP lost openers Healy for 7 and Shweta Sehrawat for 5. It was soon 20/3 as they lost Tahila McGrath for a 1st ball duck. Kiran Navgire then scored 53 off 43 balls with 5 fours and 2 sixes.
Just when it seemed all was lost at 88/6 with the fall of Simran Shaikh, it was the turn of Grace Harris to change the game. Harris scored 59 off 26 balls with 7 fours and 3 sixes as UP Wizards won a thrilling game by 3 wickets with a ball to spare as Gujarat lost their 2nd game in a row.