MI Women romp to five-wicket victory v Gujarat Giants

England’s premier allrounder Nat Sciver-Brunt shone with bat and ball to lead the Mumbai Indians Women to a commanding five-wicket victory in their WPL game against the Gujarat Giants Women at the Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara on Tuesday.

Sciver-Brunt took the new ball and claimed 2-26 in her four overs to help dismiss the Giants for a meagre 120 before scoring a formidable 57 from just 39 balls (11x4) to lead her team to 122 for five in just 16.1 overs to complete victory with 23 balls to spare.

Second Consecutive fifties for Nat Sciver-Brunt! 🔥 @natsciver / #NatSciverBrunt /#GGvMI / #MumbaiIndians / #TATAWPL pic.twitter.com/f70HTMzCwv

— Aneesh (@Aneesh_98) February 18, 2025

Brilliant Bajan off-spinning allrounder Hayley Matthews claimed 3-16 to accelerate the Giants’ demise and then contributed 17 runs from 19 balls to ensure a comfortable win. Kiwi legspinner Amelia Kerr claimed 2-22 for Mumbai.

The tone of the match may have been set by two South Africans inside the first three overs. Former Proteas fast bowler Shabnim Ismail delivered an outstanding spell of 3-1-10-1 in the Power Play which included the wicket of former teammate and current national captain Laura Wolvaardt, caught on the backward point boundary by Sajeevan Sajana for four from seven balls.

It was a classic ‘sucker punch’ by Ismail and the MI Women’s team who took advantage of Wolvaardt’s penchant for the cover drive and delivered the perfect delivery to the perfect field.

Harleen Deol (32 from 31 balls) fought hard to give the Giants a lifeline before she was caught by Matthews at deep square leg and Kashvee Gautam’s innings of 20 ended with a top-edged sweep to ‘keeper Yastika Bhatia off the bowling of Matthews.

The Giants claimed consolation wickets through legspinner Priya Mishra (2-40) and medium pacer Kashvee Gautam (2-15) but there was no answer to the power and skill of Sciver-Brunt and no way of denying the MI Women a well-deserved victory.

Mumbai are second on the five-team log with one victory and two points, ahead of the Giants and Delhi Capitals Women on net run-rate. The Royal Challengers Bangalore Women have four points from their impressive opening two victories.

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

MUMBAI INDIANS WOMEN: Yastika Bhatia (wkt), Hayley Matthews, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), G.Kamalini, Amelia Kerr, Sajeevan Sajana, Amanjot Kaur, Sanskriti Gupta, Shabnim Ismail, Parunika Sisodia.