Mooney leads the charge as Giants trample Warriorz

Beth Mooney belted an imperious unbeaten 96 to set up the Gujarat Giants Women for an emphatic 81-run victory over the UP Warriorz Women in their Tata Women's Premier League (WPL) encounter at the Ekana Stadium, Lucknow, on Monday evening.

The victory lifts the Giants from the basement to joint second. They are now tied on six points with the Mumbai Indians Women. This also puts them in contention for a slot in the play-offs. The Warriorz sink to last place.

The Warriorz won the toss and that was the last thing that went right for them. Deepti Sharma, the Warriorz's captain, inserted the Giants to bat first and Mooney made her rue the decision. Mooney smashed a splendid half-century to steer the Giants to 186 for five.

Deandra Dottin snared a brace of wickets in her first over to pin the Warriorz on the back foot. The home side, playing their first match at the Ekana, eventually mustered 105 in 17.1 overs in their chase.

“It was a chaseable target and the outfield was pretty good. We lost back-to-back wickets and couldn't chase it down. Our top 4-5 need to take initiative and we repeated the mistakes from the last game,” Deepti Sharma, the Warriorz captain, shared after the match.

Mooney put on a masterclass on how to bat at the Ekana. The 31-year-old hammered 17 fours for her sensational unbeaten 96 off 59 balls. She played with a straight bat and scored most of her fours down the ground. The opener also took on the field and pushed for twos. Her unbeaten 96 is now her highest WPL score. Her previous best was the 85 she scored against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2024.

BRILLIANTLY SET UP

“The game was set up brilliantly by Beth Mooney with the fantastic 96. There was a part where she didn't get to those triple figures, but the partnership that she had with Harleen really set up the game and then allowed someone like D-Dog [Dottin] to come in and score some quick runs,” Gardner shared.

The Australian faced 37 balls to reach her second half-ton of the season. This is Mooney's fifth in her WPL career. She is now the joint second-highest scorer in the history of the tournament. She matched Alyssa Healy's 47-ball unbeaten 96, which also came against the Warriorz, in 2023.

Mooney was part of six partnerships and only two of them were substantial. She stitched a brilliant 101-run second-wicket partnership off 68 balls with Harleen Deol.

“The way we started with the bat, obviously Harleen and I have had a really good partnership, set us up beautifully. And then, you know, had some good impetus from Deandra and Ash and Phoebe through the middle. So, that's probably a nice blueprint,” Mooney explained during the post-match presentation. She was adjudged to be the Player of the Match.

Deol looked on course to a milestone of her own but squandered the opportunity. The 26-year-old's knock was undone trying to manufacture a cut shot off Sophie Ecclestone's first over. She fell for a well-played 45 off 32 balls. That was followed by a 44-run third-wicket stand between Mooney and Ashleigh Gardner. Dottin played a 17-run cameo off eight balls when they combined for 21 runs for the fourth wicket.

Dottin trampled on the Warriorz's hopes for a successful chase with the dismissals of Kiran Navgire and Georgia Voll within three deliveries of each other. They were the first two of six batters who fell for single-digit scores. The Warriorz's innings imploded so much that their top six were back in the hutch before they put 50 runs on the board.

"I think we obviously set the tone really early. Deandra, doing what she does best. She's super skilful at being able to swing the ball both ways. A serious skill, and then casually doing what she does best as well," Gardner shared.

Dottin finished with a tidy two wickets for 14 runs in three overs. However, the pick of the bowlers for the Giants was Kashvee Gautam with three wickets for 11 runs in three overs. Tanuja Kanwar was also impressive for her three wickets for 17 runs in 3.1 overs.

Chinelle Henry gave the locals something to cheer for when she slapped three fours and two sixes for her 14-ball 28. Her entertaining knock ended when she holed out to Phoebe Litchfield at deep mid-wicket. The Warriorz's fielders grassed a few catches, but Litchfield made no mistake. She executed all three catching opportunities that came her way.

Grace Harris, Uma Chetry, and Sophie Ecclestone reached double figures, however their efforts were too paltry to be of use in the chase.

UP Warriorz: Kiran Navgire, Georgia Voll, Vrinda Dinesh, Deepti Sharma (capt), Shweta Sehrawat, Grace Harris, Uma Chetry (wk), Chinelle Henry, Sophie Ecclestone, Kranti Goud, Gouher Sultana.

Gujarat Giants: Beth Mooney (wk), D Hemalatha, Harleen Deol, Ashleigh Gardner (capt), Phoebe Litchfield, Deandra Dottin, Kashvee Gautam, Bharti Fulmali, Tanuja Kanwar, Meghna Singh, Priya Mishra.