The eighth match of the second edition of the Women's Premier League (WPL) will see Gujarat Giants (GG), led by Beth Mooney, take on Alyssa Healy’s UP Warriorz (UPW) at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium on March 1, Friday. The toss will take place at 7pm India time and the first ball is scheduled for 7:30pm.
WPL 2024 Gujarat Giants vs UP Warriorz: Recent form, points
Two back-to-back losses for the Giants have relegated them to the last place on the points table of the five-team tournament. Against the Warriorz, who got their first two points on the board courtesy of a superlative seven-wicket win over defending champions Mumbai Indians on Wednesday, the Giants will eye a turnaround of fortunes, which – though it’s still early days in the competition – could go some way towards them avoiding being wooden spooners for a second straight season.
In both of GG's losses, the inability of the big names in its batting line-up, especially the Australian trio of Ashleigh Gardner, Phoebe Litchfield and Mooney herself, cost the Giants dearly. The Warriorz, by contrast, bounced back from two consecutive defeats and found an unlikely hero in Healy’s new opening partner, Kiran Navgire, the big-hitting India international who set the tone for Warriorz’s successful chase against Mumbai with a 31-ball 57 blitz.
WPL 2024 Gujarat Giants vs UP Warriorz: Players to watch
Ashleigh Gardner, the 26-year-old batting allrounder who bowls offspin, was signed by the Gujarat Giants for a whopping INR 3.20 crore in the WPL’s inaugural auction in February 2023 and retained for the 2024 edition. In the ongoing iteration, Gardner has scored 15 and 7 and returned figures of 0 for 23 and 1 for 15 so far. An on-song Gardner is quite the one-woman army on her day, and the Giants will hope she clicks for them sooner rather than later.
Warriorz and Australia captain Alyssa Healy showed glimpses of her devastating best in the game against Mumbai. Though her 33 runs came off 29 balls, her confident strokeplay will have inspired confidence among the squad. Most teams have opted to chase at the Chinnaswamy after winning the toss, and if Warriorz bat second, a second straight game with Healy finding her mojo, no target might seem big enough.
WPL 2024 Gujarat Giants vs UP Warriorz: Squads
GG: Beth Mooney (c), Ashleigh Gardner, D. Hemalatha, Harleen Deol, Laura Wolvaardt, M.D. Shabnam, Sneh Rana, Tanuja Kanwar, Phoebe Litchfield, Meghna Singh, Trisha Poojitha, Sayali Satghare, Priya Mishra, Kathryn Bryce, Mannat Kashyap, Veda Krishnamurthy, Tarannum Pathan, Lea Tahuhu
UPW: Alyssa Healy (c), Anjali Sarvani, Deepti Sharma, Grace Harris, Kiran Navgire, Chamari Athapaththu, Laxmi Yadav, Parshavi Chopra, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, S. Yashasri, Shweta Sehrawat, Sophie Ecclestone, Tahlia Mcgrath, Dani Wyatt, Vrinda Dinesh, Saima Thakor, Poonam Khemnar, Gouher Sultana
WPL 2024 Gujarat Giants vs UP Warriorz: Coaches
UPW: Jon Lewis (England)
GG: Michael Klinger (Australia)
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