Gujarat Giants 186 for 5 (Mooney 96*, Deol 45, Ecclestone 2-34) beat UP Warriorz 105 (Henry 28, Harris 25, Gautam 3-11, Kanwar 3-17) by 81 runs

Thanks to the mammoth win, Giants’ net run rate shot up to 0.357 from -0.450 and they are now placed only behind Delhi Capitals, their six points taking them level with Mumbai Indians, whose NRR is 0.166.

Mooney puts on a batting masterclass

It looked like this was not Mooney’s season. Heading into the contest, she had tallied only 84 in five innings, averaging a mere 16.80. Since Giants don’t have a spare wicketkeeper in the squad, she continued to be backed. She started slow, being 23 off 21 when the powerplay ended, helped by a couple of fours in a Deepti Sharma over.

But it was after the field restrictions ended that Mooney truly came into her own. She used her feet against both Sophie Ecclestone and Deepti, and used the pace of Henry and Kranti Goud. Whenever Warriorz had mid-off and mid-on up and bowled length, she used her feet to access the area down the ground and peppered the straight boundary for 49 runs in the arc between long-on and long-off. At one point it looked like she would hit the first century of the WPL but she got to face only five balls at the death (overs 17-20) and finished unbeaten on 96.

Thanks to her middle-overs assault, Giants scored 104 runs in the 10 overs from seven to 16, only the fourth time they scored over 100 in that phase in the WPL.

Deol supports, Dottin entertains

Going with the trend in WPL 2025, Warriorz opted to bowl on a mixed-soil surface that had a decent covering of grass and tasted success in the opening over. Henry’s outswing had the out-of-form Dayalan Hemalatha caught behind for 2. It was her fourth single-digit score in five outings this season.

Deol, at No. 3, got going with an aerial sweep off Grace Harris over square leg. But the highlight of her innings was her footwork against the quicks. She creamed Henry through wide mid-off to end the third over and then repeated the treatment against Goud after the powerplay ended. She enjoyed the ball coming onto the bat – Phoebe Litchfield later called the Ekana the “best batting conditions” – and stroked her way to a 32-ball 45. She missed one when she made room to hit Ecclestone over the off side and was bowled, thus ending the century stand.

After a 44-run stand between Mooney and Ashleigh Gardner set Giants up for a strong finish, Deandra Dottin got going with a four off Goud in the 17th over and then hit Ecclestone for a six and a four in the next over. She attempted an ungainly reverse sweep and was trapped lbw by Ecclestone for an eight-ball 17. Warriorz closed out the innings well thereon, giving away just 16 in the last two overs, but that was not enough.

Full report to follow…