Grace Harris’ All Round prowess and Kiran Navgire’s fireworks hand MI women their first defeat in WPL 2024

UP Warriorz registered their first win of the WPL 2024 in style. Against the defending champions, Warriorz put forth their best performance and claimed a 7-wicket win with 21 balls to spare. They chased down a target of 162 with ease which would give a lot of conference. MI women dearly missed their key players like Harmanpreet Kaur and Shabnim Ismail who were absent in the match.

Alyssa Healy won the toss and elected to field first. MI women struggled to get going early in the innings. Throughout her stay in the middle, Hayley Mathews survived some reprieve bout could not accelerate as well as MI women would have liked. Though she scored a fifty, it was not enough. Some good finishing touches from Amelia Kerr, Isabelle Wong, and Pooja Vastrakar proved crucial for MI.

Their handy knocks helped the MI women to post 161 runs on the board. For UP Warriorz, all the bowlers claimed a wicket each. The overseas duo of Grace Harris and Sophie Ecclestone were economical. The former played a key role in chasing the total as well. However, the game was done and dusted with the way the opening duo went about the business.

Kiran Navgire and Grace Harris star in the win

There are not many instances where one could witness a batter like Healy drop anchor. But it was one such night where the world witnessed the fireworks from Kiran Navgire who was all over the bowlers. The right-handed batter was full of intent from the word go and carried it on for her entire stay in the middle. Mumbai Indians women could not pick the early wicket which cost them the game.

Kiran scored an impressive 57(31) and killed the game. Healy from the other end scored 33(29) before perishing. The rest of the job was done by the duo or Grace Harris and Deepti Sharma. Harris, after claiming 1/20 with the ball, had a brilliant finish with the bat to score an unbeaten 37*(18). Deepti scored 27*(20) and saw off the chase. Wong claimed two wickets for MI women but could not impact the game.