Gujarat Giants came into the game on the back of three consecutive losses and rang the changes, bringing in Danni Wyatt-Hodge in place of Georgia Wareham and Rajeshwari Gayakwad for Tanuja Kanwer. Put in to bat first, they reached 153/8 in their 20 overs, thanks largely to Sophie Devine’s late onslaught. UP Warriorz’s innings never really got moving and they fell 45 runs short, as GG moved up to second on the points table with six points from six games.
GG went with a new opening pair in Beth Mooney and Wyatt-Hodge. They raced to 23 in just 2.5 overs before Kranti Gaud bowled a beauty to dismiss Wyatt-Hodge. Mooney went on to make 38, an innings built on quick singles and well-timed boundaries, but the dominant Mooney of old is still missing, yet to produce a big score this season. At No.3, Anushka Sharma played her shots but one too many proved costly as she too fell to Kranti, who was bowled out within the first eight overs and finished with 2/18 from four.
The middle overs were completely controlled by UPW’s spin trio of Deepti Sharma, Chloe Tryon and Sophie Ecclestone. Varying their pace cleverly on a sticky surface, they made run-scoring difficult. Ashleigh Gardner played a poor shot and was bowled by Deepti, leaving GG heavily dependent on Devine, who was handed the finisher’s role for this game.
Devine struggled initially to adjust to the No.5 position, but the final two overs changed everything. She scored 21 off the last 11 balls she faced and, after being caught off a no-ball in the final over, went berserk to drag GG past the 150 mark.
UP Warriorz seemed to run out of luck from that Shikha Pandey no-ball onwards. Kiran Navgire, who has struggled for runs this season, was stumped when a leg-side wide brushed Mooney’s pads and deflected onto the stumps. Meg Lanning and Phoebe Litchfield then added 37 and looked set, before fortune intervened again as Lanning was bowled when the ball deflected off her thigh pad onto the stumps, prompting an exasperated reaction.
Litchfield once again played a pleasing knock but continued her pattern of getting out in the 30s, her insistence on the switch-hit, despite a fielder being stationed for it, leading to her dismissal.
With the chase slipping away, Renuka Singh Thakur removed the in-form Harleen Deol in familiar fashion. Harleen attempted a lofted drive over mid-on only to be caught at long-off. Any hopes Tryon had of leading a recovery were swiftly dashed by Rajeshwari, who bowled beautifully to dismiss Deepti, Shweta Sehrawat and Asha Shobana Joy, and finish with 3/16 from four overs.
Devine then completed a remarkable all-round display by removing Ecclestone and Kranti, before running out Shikha to seal an unquestionable all-round performance.
GG looked far more confident in the field, and at times it almost felt as if Mooney, rather than Gardner, was marshalling the side. The Giants have now jumped from last place to second, with matches remaining against DC and MI.
UP Warriorz, meanwhile, slip from third to the bottom of the table after their fourth loss of the season. With fixtures left against RCB and DC, they can reach a maximum of eight points, but their poor net run rate of -0.769 remains a major concern.
The upcoming fixtures, DC vs RCB and MI vs RCB, could well define the fate of Gujarat Giants and, in particular, UP Warriorz in WPL 2026.
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