Harmanpreet Kaur led from the front and produced a scintillating half-centurion knock to help the invincible Mumbai Indians thrash UP Warriorz by eight wickets in the Women's Premier League (WPL) 2023 clash on Sunday (March 12). Riding on this emphatic victory, Mumbai notched up their fourth straight victory in the tournament.
Harmanpreet hammered a cracking 53 off 33, laced with nine fours and a maximum as Mumbai Indians comfortably chased down a challenging target of 160 with 15 balls to spare. Meanwhile, Alyssa Healy (58 off 46) and Tahlia McGrath (50 off 37) too played impactful knocks but haplessly ended up on the losing side as their efforts went in vain.
Chasing a target of 160 runs, MI got off to a cracking start as they raced to 51 for no loss by the end of powerplay. Yastika Bhatia, who played a robust knock of 42 off 27 balls returned to pavilion right after the powerplay. Three balls later Hayley Matthews too got dismissed after scoring 12 off 17. Nat Sciver-Brunt and skipper Harmanpreet then took up the mantle and stitched together a 106-run stand for the third wicket and closed all door on UP Warriorz, as they chased the target down in 17.3 overs. Meanwhile, Sciver-Brunt scored unbeaten 45 off 31 balls, hitting six fours and one six.
Earlier, Warriroz won the toss and elected to bat first. MI, however, struck early as they took Shafali Vaidya out on the last ball of the second over. Kiran Navgire then joined UP skipper Alyssa Healy and the duo added 50 runs for the third wicket before Navgire got out. Tahlia McGrath and Healy then took charge of the innings and added 82 runs for the third wicket before Healy was trapped LBW by Saika Ishaque, who sent back McGrath back two balls later in the same seventeenth over after she completed her 50. A couple more wickets fell for UP as they managed 159/6 runs in their 20 overs.
For Mumbai, Ishaque took 3/33 in her four overs while Amelia Kerr took 2/33 and Hayley Matthews chipped in with 1/27 in her four overs. Mumbai currently top the table with with eight points in four matches while UP Warriorz are no.3 in the standings as they have so far notched up two victories and as many defeats.
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