Gujarat Giants 153 for 8 (Devine 50*, Mooney 38, Gaud 2-18, Ecclestone 2-22) beat UP Warriorz 108 (Litchfield 32, Tryon 30*, Gayakwad 3-16) by 45 runs
UPW were coming off a five-day break and playing their first game of the Vadodara leg. It worked in GG’s favour as they ended their three-match losing streak to break away from the four-point logjam on the table to jump to second. With four defeats in six games, UPW face a must-win in their last two matches, and they have another week-long break – a position Meg Lanning hasn’t found herself in in the WPL.
Gaud, spinners keep GG batters in check
On a black-soil surface that had a lot of cracks, Gaud landed the ball in right areas to trouble the batters. She conceded two fours in the opening over, one via a fortuitous inside edge off Danni Wyatt-Hodge, who came in for Georgia Wareham. But Gaud made amends in her next over and bowled Wyatt-Hodge with a ripper. She landed a length ball on one of the cracks around off, which made the ball deviate away just a little bit. Wyatt-Hodge played for the original line of the ball but was undone by the slight away movement. Gaud then had Anushka Sharma caught behind in her next over, two balls after the batter got a thick outside edge away for four. GG scored 52 for 2 in the powerplay; Gaud had figures of 3-0-16-2. She closed out her spell with four more dots to finish with 2 for 18.
The rest of the bowlers then built on that to slow down GG. Even with a set Beth Mooney in the middle, GG could not manage to change gears. In the ten overs after the powerplay, they managed only three sixes and a four, scoring 59 between 7-16. Sure, the surface was slightly slow, even if dew had set in early. That made strokeplay tough. But Sophie Ecclestone, Chloe Tryon, Deepti Sharma and Asha Sobhana all managed to keep the ball away from the batters’ hitting arc. Result? 50 dot balls in 16 overs.
Devine’s late hits provides GG hope
Two of the four boundaries GG scored in the middle overs, including the only six, came off Devine’s bat. That was on the fourth ball she faced. But even she was not insulated from the effects of the slow surface. Devine scored 30 off her first 33 balls she faced. She should have been back out for 21 off 24 but Phoebe Litchfield dropped a sitter at deep midwicket off Asha. That resulted in the run-out of Bharti Fulmali, who has scores of 14 off 15 and 5 off 5 after her India recall, after she ended up at the striker’s end, where Devine was ball-watching.
Devine, though, is not one to let mistakes go unpunished. She blazed 20 off the last seven balls she faced to complete her second half-century of this edition. That included two sixes in the last over of the innings bowled by Shikha Pandey, which cost UPW 16.
UPW’s batting misfires to end GG’s losing streak
A direct hit to almost dismiss Mooney, a fantastic low catch to finally get rid of her, and a smart catch running backward to end Kanika Ahuja’s stay – Kiran Navgire had had a pretty good day on the field. But her wretched run with the bat continued after she overbalanced while trying to flick a ball down leg, and the ball ricocheted off Mooney’s pads onto the stumps. She fell for a two-ball duck to follow scores of 0, 10, 0, 5 and 1. Meg Lanning had started to find her fluency when a freak dismissal ended her stay. She looked to pull Kashvee Gautam only for the ball to deflect off her thigh guard, onto the back of her leg and then onto the stumps.
A lot rested on Litchfield’s shoulders and she found boundaries regularly in the powerplay. She even greeted Ashleigh Gardner with a reverse sweep over short third. But her next attempt at that shot two balls later resulted in her dismissal, finding Renuka at short third. From there it was to be a test of UPW’s middle-order which failed. Harleen Deol failed to force the pace on a slow track and was out for 3 off 12. Deepti, Shweta Sehrawat and Asha all fell trying to force the pace against Gayakwad, brought in for Tanuja Kanwar who was wicketless in her three innings with the ball.
S Sudarshanan is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @Sudarshanan7