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Gardner, Dottin power Gujarat to WPL win over Warriorz

football16 February 2025 17:57| © MWP
By:Ross Roche
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Gujarat Giants captain Ash Gardner and Deandra Dottin powered their side to a strong six-wicket win over the UP Warriorz in their Women’s Premier League match at the Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara on Sunday night.

It was the perfect response for Gujarat, who lost their tournament opener against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Friday night, while this was the Warriorz' first game of the competition.

Captain Gardner was again her side's star player. After she hammered a half century and picked up two wickets in a losing cause against RCB, she again repeated the feat against the Warriorz and the Aussie was well assisted West Indian Dottin.

Gardner picked up 2-39 with the ball, as the Warriorz managed a below part 143-9 in their 20 overs batting first, before she struck three sixes and five fours in her 32-ball 52 with the bat.

Dottin was equally as good, picking up 2-34 with the ball, before she put the finishing touches on the chase by smashing an unbeaten 33 off 18 (3x4; 2x6), while the other big performers for Gujarat were Priya Mishra, 3-25, with the ball and Harleen Deol (34*) with the bat.

“We are very pleased. We weren't that far off the other (RCB) game. So to come out and play the brand of cricket we spoke of feels special,” said Gardner after the match.

“There are always things to improve on. Our bowlers did a fantastic job. Priya Mishra, to pick up three wickets at this stage makes captaincy easy.”

WARRIORZ FAIL TO BUILD PARTNERSHIPS

In the first innings the Warriorz lost regular wickets throughout their which didn’t allow them to build any real partnerships to get them to a defendable total.

Captain Deepti Sharma top scored with 39 off 27 balls (6x4) and shared in the innings' biggest partnership of 51 for the third wicket with Uma Chetry (24).

But other than them only four other batters contributed with cameos, with Alana King (19*), Shweta Sehrawat (16), Saima Thakor (15), and Kiran Navgire (15) all chipping in.

It was the 26-run ninth-wicket stand between King and Thakor, with all those runs coming off the last eight balls of the innings, that managed to get them to a target that their bowlers had a slight chance of defending.

However, it didn’t prove nearly enough, despite the Gujarat chase getting off to a disastrous start, as Grace Harris had Beth Mooney caught by Tahlia McGrath for a first-ball duck, and Sophie Ecclestone bowled Dayalan Hemalatha for a third-ball duck, leaving them on 2-2 in the second over.

However, that brought Gardner in to join Laura Wolvaardt (22) and they revived the chase with a positive 55-run third-wicket stand.

Ecclestone bowled Wolvaardt, giving her solid figures of 2-16 in her four overs, and McGrath had Gardner caught by Navgire to give the Warriorz hope at 86-4.

But Deol and Dottin were relatively untroubled as they combined for an unbeaten 58-run partnership to cruise over the line with 12 balls to spare.

GUJARAT GIANTS: Beth Mooney (wk), Laura Wolvaardt, Dayalan Hemalatha, Deandra Dottin, Ashleigh Gardner (capt), Harleen Deol, Simran Shaikh, Tanuja Kanwar, Sayali Satghare, Priya Mishra, Kashvee Gautam

UP WARRIORZ: Uma Chetry (wk), Vrinda Dinesh, Shweta Sehrawat, Kiran Navgire, Grace Harris, Deepti Sharma (capt), Tahlia McGrath, Alana King, Sophie Ecclestone, Saima Thakor, Kranti Goud

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