🏏WPL 2025: Match 15 - GG W vs UP Warriorz W at Lucknow, 03/03/25🏏 - Page 74

Details for today's match--

Gujarat Giants Women vs Mumbai Indians Women, 5th Match

Series: Women's Premier League 2025

Venue: Kotambi Stadium, Vadodara

Date & Time: Feb 18, 07:30 PM LOCAL

Congratulations to RCB W for winning the match.

Congratulations to Renuka Singh for winning the PoTM award.

Cheers..

🏏WPL 2025: Match 5 - GG vs MI Women at Vadodara on 18/02/25 at 7:30PM IST🏏

Gujarat Giants look to overcome bowling woes to break Mumbai Indians jinx

Mumbai started the tournament with a close loss against Delhi Capitals and will be itching to open their account

Who's playing

Gujarat Giants (GG) vs Mumbai Indians (MI)

Kotambi Stadium, Vadodara, February 18, 2025, 7.30pm IST

What to expect: GG look to break MI jinx

The last time MI and GG met, Harmanpreet Kaur cracked 95 off 48 balls as MI pulled off a heist and booked a playoffs spot last moment. That meant MI have a 4-0 record against GG so far.

But unlike the previous two seasons, GG have started WPL 2025 on a much stronger note. While it took them five attempts to win their first game in 2024, their first victory this time came in their second match, when they beat UP Warriorz (UPW) comfortably. But ineffective death bowling continues to be a concern for GG. RCB took them for 79 runs off the last 4.3 overs, while UPW smashed 26 runs off the final eight deliveries of their innings. With the bat, GG's captain Ashleigh Gardner will be looking for more support from the top order, as their top three tallied only 22 runs between them against UPW.

Meanwhile, MI started this season with a close loss against Delhi Capitals after three contentious run-out decisions. MI stuttered their way to 164 after Nat-Sciver Brunt (80*) and Harmanpreet (42) had given them a blazing start. Four of MI's remaining top-seven batters fell for single-figure scores, and MI will hope things change against GG.

Team news and likely XIs

GG have played the same XI in both matches so far after handing out four debuts in the opener against RCB. But Sayali Satghare's six overs across those two games cost 64 runs, and she struck only once. D Hemalatha, on the other hand, managed scores of only 4 and 0. So GG will hope they are back in form before it gets too late.

Gujarat Giants (probable): 1 Beth Mooney (wk), 2 Laura Wolvaardt, 3 D Hemalatha, 4 Ashleigh Gardner (capt), 5 Harleen Deol, 6 Deandra Dottin, 7 Simran Shaikh, 8 Tanuja Kanwar, 9 Sayali Satghare, 10 Priya Mishra, 11 Kashvee Gautam

MI have played only a solitary game so far this season, and are unlikely to panic despite their batters under-performing. But they will want Saika Ishaque, their second-highest wicket-taker in the WPL, to put behind a disappointing outing against RCB, as she leaked 43 runs in three overs.

Mumbai Indians (probable): 1 Hayley Matthews, 2 Yastika Bhatia (wk), 3 Nat Sciver-Brunt, 4 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 5 Amelia Kerr, 6 S Sajana, 7 Amanjot Kaur, 8 Sanskriti Gupta, 9 Jintimani Kalita, 10 Shabnim Ismail, 11 Saika Ishaque

Players to watch

Deandra Dottin made her WPL debut only this year, but has already left a mark. She walked out to bat in the 12th over in both matches, and struck at a rapid pace, scoring 25 off 13 while batting first against RCB, and then an unbeaten 33* off 18 in a tricky chase against UPW to ensure GG hunted down 144 with two overs to spare. GG will hope Dottin's run continues, and helps them break their MI jinx.

Nat-Sciver Brunt may not have scored a lot in the recent Ashes but she showed her class in MI's opening game. Batting at No.3, her 80 off 59 balls, which included 13 fours, formed the bedrock of MI's total. That is nearly half of the 172 runs she managed in nine innings last WPL, and her form will be a relief for MI, whose batting otherwise mainly rests on Harmanpreet's shoulders in the middle order.

Key stats

• Four of the top six wicket-takers in the WPL are from MI: Hayley Matthews (25 wickets), Ishaque (24), Amelia Kerr (24) and Sciver-Brunt (21).
• Only four players have achieved the double of scoring at least 300 runs and taking 20 wickets in the WPL. Three of them are from MI (Sciver-Brunt, Matthews and Kerr), and one from GG (Gardner).

Gujarat Giants would hope to close out their home leg on a high with a win but they'll be up against their bogey team Mumbai Indians, who are yet to get off the mark after a close defeat in their WPL 2025 season opener, on Tuesday (February 18). In the two rather forgettable two editions previously, Giants have a 0-4 record against MI, the most haunting of those defeats being the heist Harmanpreet Kaur orchestrated in Delhi where MI needed 72 off the last five overs.

Playing in front of their home crowd for the first time in the three editions of WPL, Giants under new-captain Ash Gardner began with a bang when they equalled their highest total of 201 on the opening night against defending champions. Their sloppiness in the field coupled with dew, however cost them dear as Royal Challengers Bengaluru ended up comfortably registering a tournament-record chase with an over and a half to spare. One night later, Priya Mishra set up a comfortable win against UP Warriorz to help Giants get on the board finally.

Gardner, with back to fifties and two wickets in each of the innings, has led the team from the front in her maiden captaincy stint in WPL, and Deandra Dottin, on her belated debut for the franchise, has left an immediate impact. An immediate cause of concern would be death-overs bowling. Not that the dew has helped, but lack of penetration, or discipline, at the backend cost them two points on the opening night as they allowed RCb to score 113 in just 8.3 overs, and even let UPW's tail to cross 140 from 101/7 at one point.

Mumbai's last-ball loss to Delhi Capitals was marred by a couple of contentious run-out calls which they would want to now move past quickly in search of their first points this season. Their over-reliance on the international stars hurt them once again with only Nat Sciver-Brunt (80*) and skipper Harmanpreet (42) managing a substantial score with no support elsewhere.

While hoping for more contributors to put their hand up consistently, MI would also be seeking more game-awareness especially from the seasoned players. Wasting the last-five balls of their batting innings - when all Saika Ishaque needed was to turn the strike over to the Englishwoman instead of going for a glory shot - proved a costly misjudgment in hindsight.

When: Tuesday, February 18 at 7:30 PM IST

Where: Kotambi Stadium, Vadodara

What to expect: More runs. The black-soil pitches combined with short boundaries on most sides have made conditions very batter-friendly thus far. Chasing has quickly become captains' preferred choice at toss given the heavy dew that falls.

Squads:

Mumbai Indians Women Squad: Yastika Bhatia(w), Hayley Matthews, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Amelia Kerr, Sajeevan Sajana, Amanjot Kaur, Sanskriti Gupta, Jintimani Kalita, Shabnim Ismail, Saika Ishaque, Keerthana Balakrishnan, Chloe Tryon, Parunika Sisodia, Amandeep Kaur, G Kamalini, Akshita Maheshwari, Nadine de Klerk

Gujarat Giants Women Squad: Laura Wolvaardt, Beth Mooney(w), Dayalan Hemalatha, Ashleigh Gardner(c), Harleen Deol, Deandra Dottin, Simran Shaikh, Tanuja Kanwar, Sayali Satghare, Kashvee Gautam, Priya Mishra, Meghna Singh, Danielle Gibson, Phoebe Litchfield, Mannat Kashyap, Shabnam Md Shakil, Prakashika Naik, Bharti Fulmali

Head to Head - Last 4 Matches

MI Women won by 7 wickets (with 1 ball remaining), 10-Mar-2024

MI Women won by 5 wickets (with 11 balls remaining), 26-Feb-2024

MI Women won by 55 runs, 15-Mar-2023

MI Women won by 143 runs, 05-Mar-2023

Batters to watch(Recent stats)

Beth Mooney, GG-W

10 M • 341 Runs • 42.63 Avg • 139.18 SR

Ashleigh Gardner, GG-W

10 M • 251 Runs • 27.89 Avg • 141.8 SR

Harmanpreet Kaur, MI-W

8 M • 310 Runs • 51.67 Avg • 146.22 SR

Nat Sciver-Brunt, MI-W

10 M • 252 Runs • 28 Avg • 124.13 SR

Bowlers to watch(Recent stats)

Ashleigh Gardner, GG-W

10 M • 11 Wkts • 8.28 Econ • 18.45 SR

Tanuja Kanwar, GG-W

10 M • 10 Wkts • 7.24 Econ • 20.4 SR

Nat Sciver-Brunt, MI-W

10 M • 11 Wkts • 8.16 Econ • 16.9 SR

Shabnim Ismail, MI-W

8 M • 9 Wkts • 5.97 Econ • 21.33 SR