Mumbai Indians Vs Gujarat Giants, WPL 2024: Harmanpreet Kaur, Amelia Kerr Shine As MI Beat GG By 5 Wickets - As It Happened

Two games, two tense last-ball finishes. The Women's Premier League 2024 is keeping viewers hooked, right from the get go. Sajeevan Sajana's last-ball six and Asha Sobhana's magnificent fifer headlined the first two duels. Will another unheralded player steal the show tonight? We will find out soon enough. Stay tuned for the live scores and updates of all the action from the Mumbai Indians Women vs Gujarat Giants Women, WPL 2024 match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. (Full Coverage | Schedule And Points Table)

After a day's rest, the Harmanpreet Kaur-led MI Women will take the field again for their second game of the season. Up against them are Beth Mooney's Gujarat Giants, who will be kicking off their campaign with this match.

The two teams have faced off twice before, in the inaugural edition of the Women's Premier League. Mumbai had emerged as the dominant victors on both occasions. In the first clash, Harmanpreet's team bowled out Gujarat for a lowly total of 64 to register a whopping 143-run win in the WPL 2023 season-opener. The second encounter saw Mumbai come up trumps by 55 runs, a performance that was eventually followed by the team lifting the trophy.

Gujarat Giants Women: Beth Mooney (wk/c), Laura Wolvaardt, Harleen Deol, Phoebe Litchfield, Ashleigh Gardner, Veda Krishnamurthy, Dayalan Hemalatha, Sneh Rana, Tanuja Kanwar, Meghna Singh, Mannat Kashyap, Shabnam Md Shakil, Priya Mishra, Trisha Poojitha, Kashvee Gautam, Tarannum Pathan, Kathryn Bryce, Lauren Cheatle.

Mumbai Indians Women: Hayley Matthews, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Amelia Kerr, Pooja Vastrakar, Amanjot Kaur, Sajeevan Sajana, Shabnim Ismail, Keerthana Balakrishnan, Saika Ishaque, Chloe Tryon, Fatima Jaffer, Issy Wong, Humaira Kazi, Jintimani Kalita, Priyanka Bala, Amandeep Kaur.

Mumbai Indians Women have won the toss and have opted to field

Teams:

Gujarat Giants (Playing XI): Beth Mooney(w/c), Veda Krishnamurthy, Phoebe Litchfield, Harleen Deol, Ashleigh Gardner, Dayalan Hemalatha, Sneh Rana, Tanuja Kanwar, Kathryn Bryce, Lea Tahuhu, Meghna Singh

Mumbai Indians Women (Playing XI): Hayley Matthews, Yastika Bhatia(w), Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Amelia Kerr, Pooja Vastrakar, Amanjot Kaur, S Sajana, Shabnim Ismail, Keerthana Balakrishnan, Saika Ishaque

Tonight's pitch is a new one, thus the dimensions are changed. 57m square on one side and 52m on the other. The longest pocket is 67-68 metres. There is a nice layer of grass on the surface, but below it is dry. It might be difficult for batters to decide whether to go full speed or keep an eye out. Overall, it appears to be a decent surface. The grass coverage is patchy, which may result in some inconsistent bounce.

Gujarat Giants started their batting with Veda Krishnamurthy and captain Beth Mooney. Shabnim Ismail opened the attack with bowling. She trapped Veda in front of the wicket, and the Umpire also gave that Out. Veda reviewed, but it appeared three reds and Gujarat lost their first wicket and a review in the first over. Harleen Deol is the new batter.

GG - 4/1 (1)

Harleen Deol has been declared LBW, but she decided to reconsider after consulting with her skipper! It was a length ball that came in quickly from around off; Deol attempted to tuck it over but was smacked on the front pad above the knee roll. UltraEdge comes into action, displaying a flat line. Ball-tracking enters the scene and returns three reds. Hitting the top of the leg. GG is in trouble, and they have also lost their review.

GG - 18/2 (3)

Phoebe Litchfield fails to impress on her debut! She utilises her feet, and Nat Sciver-Brunt bowls an off-cutter on a full length on the offside. She attempts to hurl it past the line, but the ball touches the outer half of her bat and flies to the short third. The fielder goes to her right, gets low, and securely pouches it.

GG - 43/3 (6)

Mooney had planned the scoop; it was the slower ball from Ismail down the leg, nothing ball, and a tiny edge on the shot, so Yastika dived to her right to catch it low. Ismail strikes with her first ball upon her comeback.

GG - 64/5 (11)

Amelia Kerr first removed set batter Ashleigh Gardener and then Sneh Rana to make Gujarat Giants seven down. Kathryn Bryce is accompanying Tanuja Kanwar at the crease.

GG - 82/7 (14)

Hayley Matthews came to bowl the 17th over of the innings and she conceded just four runs off it. Tanuja Kanwar and Kathryn Bryce are taking the match to the final overs now.

GG - 97/7 (17)

Tanuja Kanwar and Kathryn Bryce played some fine shots in the end to take Gujarat Giants to a respectable total of 126 runs after the middle-order crashed badly. MI Need 127 runs to win this match.

GG - 126/9 (20)

Brief Score: GG - 126/9 (20)

Tanuja Kanwar - 28 (21), Kathryn Bryce - 25 (24) | Amelia Kerr: (4-0-17-4)

Yastika Bhatia and Hayley Matthews opened the batting for Mumbai Indians and Ashleigh Gardener came to bowl the first over for Gujarat Giants. She conceded seven runs off her first over.

MI - 7/0 (1)

Yastika wanted to smash a slower, fuller-length ball in line with the stumps but instead sliced it off the toe-end of the bat to mid-off. Veda grabs it comfortably on the edge of the circle.

MI - 19/1 (3)

Nat Sciver hit two boundaries off Kathryn Bryce to reduce the pressure and also took a triple to extract 11 runs off her over.

MI - 32/2 (5)

Kanwar did some impressive work! That was always going to be a tight race, and that worked against Nat Sciver-Brunt. On a back of a length outside off, Kaur plays it with an open bat face to the left of backward point. The hitters take off running, and Kanwar shifts to her left and makes a precise throw. Mooney's sharp glovework and Nat Sciver-Brunt appear to be suffering when the bails are removed. It's taken upstairs, and Nat Sciver-Brunt is indeed short.

MI - 50/3 (8)

Sneh Rana came to bowl the 12th over for the Gujarat Giants and gave just seven runs off it. She conceded just three runs off the first five deliveries but was hit for a boundary on the last delivery.

MI - 80/3 (12)

Amelia Kerr and Harmanpreet Kaur have added more than 50 runs for the fourth wicket and the duo is going strong and nearing the target with every passing over.

MI - 110/3 (15)

Harmanpreet Kaur hit the winning runs as Mumbai Indians won the match by five wickets against Gujarat Giants. Amelia Kerr and Kaur added 66 runs for the fourth wicket to ease the run-chase.

MI - 129/5 (18.1)

I was concerned about the first game versus Mumbai, but thankfully, I came out unharmed. (About the score) We let ourselves down in the first ten overs. TK and Bryce deserve credit for getting us to a defendable total. We were 20 runs short in the end, making it a difficult pursuit. There is a lot to take away from the opening innings. (On Bryce) She was excellent tonight. She has been an excellent find, and hopefully this is only the beginning. Sometimes you have to pull the outcome, especially in a new team. It is frustrating to lose, but we will take the positives and move on to the next game.

Thank you very much. We have a really balanced team, with all-rounders representing their country, and we advised them to go out and enjoy the game. She has been fantastic thus far, and others are encouraging her when she is performing so well; our bowlers compliment one other extremely well. There are nine bowlers total, including myself. I believe we are going with the greatest pairings; when you have a long bowling schedule, you must get the matchups correct, and I am happy of the girls. It's the second game, and they're getting a better knowledge of the circumstance and the conditions, so they'll recover well.

When you bowl later in the innings, you might get struck but also take wickets. For me, it's all about determining the circumstances and experimenting with different approaches. It turned out good tonight. (On the googly) It is something I practise; it is a good option in T20 cricket, particularly against left-handed batsmen. Shabs (Shabnim Ismail) began out strong, which helped us to maintain our lead. Charlotte Edwards (MI's head coach) told me to simply go out there and bat till the end. Just backing up my game and trying to play solid cricketing strokes; it's about going out there and playing low-risk cricket in that environment.

MI has registered their second win of the season by beating Gujarat Giants comfortably by 5 wickets. We will be back tomorrow, until then it's a goodbye from us. Take Care, Goodnight!