UP Warriorz 162 for 3 (Deol 64*, Tryon 27*, Sciver-Brunt 2-28) beat Mumbai Indians 161 for 5 (Sciver-Brunt 65, Amanjot 38, Pandey 1-25) by seven wickets
MI’s powerless powerplay
After Amelia Kerr’s struggles opening the batting in the first two games, MI decided to partner Amanjot Kaur with G Kamalini at the top, but that didn’t pay off either. Kranti Gaud and Shikha Pandey kept swinging the new ball away from the openers, who kept edging and missing in the powerplay of 32 runs, the second-lowest in WPL without losing a wicket. Kamalini barely moved her feet and while Amanjot put away the odd delivery when she got width, she also edged and missed plenty of times.
Amanjot nearly fell in the third over for 6, but her outside edge bisected first slip and the wicketkeeper for four. Her edges became a recurring theme while facing 27 off the 36 balls in the powerplay. An outside and inside-edge fetched her two boundaries in three balls as Gaud bowled her fourth over on the bounce with her tail up. It was Deepti Sharma and Sophie Ecclestone who soon had the openers holing out in consecutive overs: Amanjot fell for 38 off 33, whereas Kamalini’s horror night ended on 5 off 12.
Sciver-Brunt and Carey do it again
Deepti and Ecclestone then looped and turned the ball with such a lack of pace that the experienced duo of Harmanpreet Kaur and Sciver-Brunt also couldn’t put the ball away. The duo started to open up after the halfway mark when Sciver-Brunt found the gap with a reverse sweep and Harmanpreet hit a monstrous six off Asha Sobhana in the 13th over. Sobhana countered with a wicket immediately, but the credit should go to Tryon, who completed a stunning diving catch at square leg.
An in-form Nicola Carey is all Sciver-Brunt needed for company as she started to find the gaps with ease. She pulled Sobhana for two fours with a straight six in between to nearly take the run rate to seven. Carey then hammered Tryon for four fours in an over and Sciver-Brunt’s streak of boundaries brought up her 32-ball fifty, her 10th in the WPL, joint-most with Harmanpreet and Meg Lanning. Sciver-Brunt had earlier been put down by a one-handed effort from Lanning and she got another life when Deepti couldn’t hold on to a tough return chance in a 15-run 18th over. UPW pulled back again in the last two overs to keep MI down to a below-par total.
UPW’s slow powerplay mirrors MI’s
UPW’s powerplay was hardly different from MI’s: one opener – Kiran Navgire – never got going while the other – Meg Lanning – hogged the strike and even though she found boundaries, she looked far from her usual self. Lanning also got a life, on 16, when Sanskriti Gupta put one down at point but MI didn’t have to wait long to send her back. Sciver-Brunt handed UPW a double blow, having both Lanning and Navgire hole out in the space of five balls to leave UPW on a tricky 45 for 2 in the seventh over.
The Deol deal
It was almost like the retired-out decision lit a fire in her as Deol came out with intent. She started by collecting three fours off her first three deliveries with a cut, drive and late dab to pierce different gaps on the off side, and the cameras showed coach Abhishek Nayar immediately, who had called Deol back on Wednesday. With No. 3 Phoebe Litchfield also in good nick at the other end, Deol kept going after MI as they kept offering width on the off side.
She bagged another streak of three fours in four balls and all on the off side off Shabnim Ismail to stamp her name all over the chase to make the equation a gettable 64 from 48. After striking eight fours in her first 20 balls – all on the off side – with timing and placement, she finally collected her first boundary on leg when she pulled Kerr behind square. Kerr, however, dismissed Litchfield for the eighth time in T20s to end that 15th over before Deol brought up a 32-ball fifty and smashed Sanskriti for three fours in her 15-run over.
Even though the equation became a comfortable 29 off 24, Deol and Tryon kept their foot on the pedal for regular boundaries and finished things off with 11 balls to spare.
Vishal Dikshit is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo