Mumbai won handily and moved up to second place thanks to a five-wicket haul from Amelia Kerr and a scorching fifty from Hayley Mathews. Although MI hasn’t qualified yet, they now have eight points, two more than the leaders and the Delhi Capitals, who have one more game to go. In the meantime, UP Warriorz remain at the bottom and will now require favors from others in order to advance to the next round. With a lot on the line, UP Warriorz got off to a strong start but collapsed in the second half to finish with a subpar 150/9, which the first-ever winners chased down with nine balls remaining.
Amelia Kerr, who had only opened 20 times in T20 cricket before, was Mathews’ new batting partner at the top of the order. She hit boundaries with Sophie Ecclestone and Chinelle Henry, but the former dismissed her for 10 in the following over. This season, Nat Sciver-Brunt has maintained her amazing form, surpassing 300 runs at a strike rate of around 150. She and Matthews pushed UPW out of the game with their second wicket stand, which was worth 92 runs. After adding 133 off 81 in their last encounter, this tandem has now tortured the Warriorz twice this season.
By her high standards, Matthews had one successful WPL appearance among several mediocre ones, while Sciver-Brunt continued to be her best. In the PowerPlay, she skillfully slashed and pulled against Sophie Ecclestone, Henry, and Kranti Goud. They evened the score against Gouher Sultana, a left-arm spinner. They reached 91/1 in 10 overs at the midway point, having polished off more than half of the mark.
Matthews reached her 35-ball half-century with another cut stroke off Deepti Sharma in the eleventh over. After continuing to tonk away, Sciver-Brunt smashed one off Grace Harris to Deepti at mid-wicket. Goud dismissed Matthews for a 48-ball 68 (8x4s, 2x6s) an over later. Harmanpreet Kaur was also cheaply dismissed by Harris, but MI was overrun by Amanjot Kaur and Yastika Bhatia, who scored too few runs to defend.
It was a promising start for the Warriorz long before this sad end. Promoting Georgia Voll to start the innings paid off immediately for them as she quickly reached a half-century. In the first innings of this season, she also added the first wicketless PowerPlay and a 74-run partnership with Harris for the first wicket. Harris smashed Matthews for a six over long-on in the eighth over, but he fell on the next one and was top-ed to G Kamalini at short fine. UP Warriorz were ahead 89/2 in 10 overs, when Kiran Navgire was dismissed for a second consecutive duck, becoming the first of five wickets for Kerr.
In the following over, Sciver-Brunt produced a turnaround for her side by dismissing Voll with a slower over. The Warriorz were vulnerable to a collapse in the second half after Voll walked off for a 55 off 33 balls. Henry and Vrinda Dinesh were out of the game within three balls with to Kerr’s double-wicket over in the 15th. UPW dropped to 125/7 as Matthews returned to dismiss Shweta Sehrawat and Parunika Sisodia dismissed Chetry.Despite Sophie Ecclestone’s last-ditch efforts to push her team ahead, Kerr bowled another double-wicket over to end with 5 for 38 and limit UPW to 150/9. In the second half, UPW scored 61/7 off 60 balls, but their total was inadequate.
UP Warriorz 150/9 in 20 overs (Georgia Voll 55, Grace Harris 28; Amelia Kerr 5-38, Hayley Matthews 2-25) lost to MI 153/4 in 18.3 overs (Hayley Matthews 68, Nat Sciver-Brunt 37; Grace Harris 2-11) by 6 wickets
