Nat Sciver-Brunt is propping herself to be a solid contender for the ‘Player of the Series’ award in this Women’s Premier League campaign.
Mumbai Indians rode on the England international’s unbeaten half-century and economical three for 18 to beat UP Warriorz by eight wickets at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
Sciver-Brunt (75 not out off 44 balls) found the boundary all over the ground, leaving the Warriorz as mere spectators, and entertained the nearly 10,000-strong crowd which had fans clad in Royal Challengers Bengaluru jerseys waving MI flags.
Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur didn’t need to do much and hit a fortuitous four to wrap the chase in 17 overs. Sciver-Brunt – who snatched the Orange Cap off of Ellyse Perry during her knock – and Hayley Matthews stitched a 133-run stand for the second wicket after Deepti Sharma removed Yastika Bhati for a duck in the fourth over.
AS ITA HAPPENED: MI vs UPW Highlights
Matthews (59 off 50 balls) could have been sent back to the hut much earlier in the MI’s innings if Sophie Ecclestone had held on at first slip off Chinelle Henry’s bowling in the third over. Matthews was on two.
With this win, Mumbai Indians momentarily replaced Delhi Capitals at the top of the standings with six points from four matches.
Earlier, Deepti and Co. seemed confident batting first on this ground where they posted 177 runs against DC in a winning cause.
Australian all-rounder Grace Harris was pushed to open for the first time this season alongside Kiran Navgire. However, a short ball spelt doom for Kiran once again after she pulled out to Shabnim Ismail at mid-on off Sciver-Brunt.
In at No. 3, Vrinda Dinesh (33 off 30 balls) held the ship alongside Harris to add 79 runs for the second wicket. The former was scoring through the cover and point regions, while the latter seemed comfortable at the top of the order where she usually bats in the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) for the Brisbane Heat.
However, Amelia Kerr got MI the breakthrough by sending Harris (45 off 26 balls) back. With the Australian’s ouster, the Mumbai side flipped the script by taking four wickets for just 12 runs.
Sanskriti Gupta (2/11 in two overs) and Kerr (1/24) stifled the batting side’s scoring and forced the run rate to drop significantly.
Birthday girl Shweta Sehrawat top-scored amongst the middle-order batters with a 13-ball 19 while Henry (7 off eight balls) and last game’s match-winner Ecclestone (6 off eight balls) failed to contribute.
