MI ekes out slender win in opposition to Giants, boosts possibilities of making closing straight

Harmanpreet Kaur’s knock ensured Mumbai Indians posted a aggressive complete in opposition to Gujarat Giants in an WPL match in Mumbai on Monday.
| Picture Credit score: EMMANUAL YOGINI

In a sport that ebbed and flowed proper via, Mumbai Indians sneaked to victory by 9 runs in opposition to Gujarat Giants in entrance of a partisan crowd on the Brabourne Stadium on Monday. The host’s win within the first match of the Mumbai leg on this yr’s Ladies’s Premier League (WPL) enhances its possibilities of qualifying straight for Saturday’s closing.

MI, which has 10 factors after seven matches, can usurp Delhi Capitals for the highest spot if it beats Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Tuesday. Chasing 180, Bharti Fulmali’s entertaining 25-ball 61 gave GG a glimmer, however the lack of worthwhile contributions from the top-order was its undoing.

Needing 68 runs from the ultimate 5 overs with 4 wickets in hand, GG was staring down the barrel. However 
Fulmali wasn’t prepared to offer in simply but. The 30-year-old wielded the lengthy deal with to devastating impact, serving to the customer take 13 runs off the sixteenth over and 17 off the seventeenth over. Even after her dismissal,  Simran Shaikh and Tanuja Kanwer whacked a number of boundaries.

That MI reached the full it did was largely right down to Harmanpreet Kaur’s 54. It had ambled to 46 for 2 in seven overs earlier than Harmanpreet and Nat Sciver-Brunt injected some momentum into the innings with a 59-run stand in 40 deliveries.

A shot within the arm in MI’s quest to up the ante got here within the ninth over, when Priya Mishra was dispatched for 3 fours. A full toss was reverse swept by Harmanpreet previous brief third whereas Sciver-Brunt pierced the gaps by using the reduce and sweep photographs.

After Sciver-Brunt was caught and bowled by Ashleigh Gardner, Harmanpreet ensured with the decrease middle-order that the speed of scoring didn’t drop. The group added 40 runs off the final three overs.

The scores: Mumbai Indians 179/6 in 20 overs (Harmanpreet Kaur 54, Nat Sciver-Brunt 38) bt Gujarat Giants 170 in 20 overs (Bharti Fulmali 61, Amelia Kerr 3/34, Shabnim Ismail 2/17, Hayley Matthews 3/38). Toss: GG.

PoM: Harmanpreet.

Tuesday’s match: Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru, 7.30 pm.