WPL 2024: Meet Saima Thakor, who dismissed Harmanpreet Kaur, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues

Though UP Warriorz went on to lose the match against Mumbai Indians by a sizable 42 runs, Saima Thakor’s high-profile maiden WPL wicket made heads turn.

Uncapped right-arm pacer Saima Thakor has been a proven performer on the Indian domestic circuit for several years now. But it’s with the wickets of top-drawer India regulars Harmanpreet Kaur, Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues that the 27-year-old has caught the eye of many, playing her trade for the Alyssa Healy-led UP Warriorz at the ongoing second edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL).

Bought at her base price of Rs 10 lakh at the WPL 2024 auction in December last year, Thakor made her WPL debut against the Royal Challengers during the Bengaluru leg of the tournament on February 24. She went wicketless and proved expensive in her two overs that cost 23 runs. Since then, she has bowled in two of the four matches she’s figured in in the starting XI, making a significant impact in both games.

Against the Mumbai Indians, she was introduced into the attack in the ninth over and went for 10 runs. Upon her reintroduction, in the 15th, she bowled captain Harmanpreet Kaur with a full-ish inswinging delivery that took out the superstar batter’s offstump. Though the Warriorz went on to lose the match, eventually, by a sizable 42 runs, Thakor’s high-profile maiden WPL wicket made heads turn.

In the Warriorz’s next match, against the Capitals, a must-win fixture for them to stay alive in the playoffs race, Thakor operated in the Powerplay as well as the death. Her efficacy was on view in both phases. In her second over of the match, and Warriorz’s fourth, Thakor’s deliveries, most of which decked in upon pitching, troubled opener Shafali Verma. The duo got into a brief stare-down either side of the second delivery when Shafali stabbed one back towards Thakor, who collected the ball and gestured to have a shy at the striker’s stumps.

India international Shafali, visibly spurred on by Thakor’s show of pluck, mouthed a few words, egging her on to go on and effect the throw. Thakor didn’t; instead, she walked back to the start of her run-up after giving Shafali a stern glare. The following ball, runless, dabbed towards backward point, had Thakor give Shafali another glare.

The episode had the non-striker, Capitals captain Meg Lanning, walk up to Shafali with a view to calm her down. But, as the sequence would unfold, Thakor had the last laugh in her duel with Shafali, who was bowled through the gate as she danced down the track and tried to whack the delivery, which kept a tad low, into the leg side. Thakor gave Verma a send-off as the batter walked off.

“I did enjoy her aggression; I was at point,” said Warriorz allrounder Grace Harris about the wicket and its build-up and payoff at the post-match press conference on Friday. Thakor struck a second time on the night as she had her Mumbai team-mate and captain, Jemimah Rodrigues, hole out to Sophie Ecclestone for a 15-ball 17.

“Saima and I are developing a great little friendship in masala chais (tea) after the games and all throughout the day,” Harris, who plays for Australia, said. “She’s asked me a lot of questions. I haven’t always been able to answer them as I am not a pace-bowling expert. I try to help her as a batter and how I would play her or the game in the scenario she has picked to bowl.

“I loved that feistiness. If you want to last in international cricket, you need to have that in your belly. You need to be able to take on the best. If Shafali Shafali is walking down the wicket at you, you need to be able to go, ‘Get back to your crease.’ She has a great attitude towards cricket. She has a great skill set and she’s constantly trying to learn.”

“The coaches and other players today encouraged Saima to hold the stump line and bowl good lengths. You saw how effective that was. She’s a really good player and if she develops how she should, she’s got a long career ahead for India.”