On a surface where the ball turned a lot and was also holding up, England's star left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone (3/15) led the way with her excellent bowling as UP Warriorz bundled out Mumbai Indians for 127. When MI batted, as many as 18 of the 20 overs were bowled by spinners, a WPL record.
UPW faced some obstacles before competing the task with three balls to spare. Grace Harris (39) and Tahlia McGrath (38) were the main contributors with the bat for UPW, while Deepti Sharma (13 not out) and player of the match Ecclestone (16 not out) also played vital knocks.
UPW lost Devika Vaidya with just one run on the board at the start of the second over. While the successful bowler was Hayley Matthews, most of the credit for the dismissal must got to Harmanpreet Kaur, who pulled off a sensational catch at first slip after the batter got a thick outside edge.
Defending a small but tricky total on this surface, MI found another reason to celebrate when Yastika Bhatia completed a fantastic one-handed diving catch behind the wicket off the bowling of Nat Sciver-Brunt to send back Kiran Navgire for 12, for which she consumed 16 balls.
After their skipper Alyssa Healy opted to field first, the UP Warriorz bowlers did a commendable job to keep things tight and take wickets at regular intervals against the strong Mumbai batting line-up. MI were 56 for two at the end of the 10th over with Hayley Matthews (35) and captain Harmanpreet Kaur (25) looking to build a partnership after the departure of Yastika Bhatia (5) and Nat Sciver-Brunt (7).
(With PTI inputs)
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