During the chase of UPW’s 187-8, MI lost their top five batters, including skipper Harmanpreet (18), when the scoreboard read 69-5 after 11 overs
UPW’s Meg Lanning (right) and Phoebe Litchfield in Navi Mumbai on Saturday. PIC/ATUL KAMBLE
In the last three days, defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) have suffered two back-to-back defeats against UP Warriorz (UPW). On Thursday, UPW beat MI by seven wickets in their first WPL-4 encounter at the DY Patil Stadium. Then, on Saturday, Meg Lanning’s team beat Harmanpreet Kaur & Co by 22 runs in their return game at the same venue.
During the chase of UPW’s 187-8, MI lost their top five batters, including skipper Harmanpreet (18), when the scoreboard read 69-5 after 11 overs. Following that, despite an 83-run partnership off just 45 balls between No. 7 Amanjot Kaur (24-ball 41, 4x4, 3x6) and No. 6 Amelia Kerr (49 not out off 28 balls), MI failed to register their third win in the tournament.
Lanning (45-ball 70, 11x4, 2x6) and Phoebe Litchfield (37-ball 61, 7x4, 3x6), who shared a 119-run stand off just 74 balls, were the chief architects of UPW’s win. However, MI’s sloppy fielding and poor bowling helped UPW.
Opener Lanning, who anchored the innings, scored the first boundary for the team through a well-timed pull shot against off-spinner Sanskriti Gupta. Lanning also smashed the first maximum in the third over when she dispatched pacer Nicola Carey (1-38) over the fine leg fence with a sweep. Lanning’s half-century came in 36 balls when she hit leg-spinner Amelia Kerr (3-28) for a six over long-off.
One-drop left-hander Litchfield exhibited solid footwork, especially against the spinners. Her cover drive for four against West Indies off-spinner Hayley Matthews (1-40) while dancing down the track was a treat to watch. Then, Lanning capitalised on it, finishing Matthews’s over with two successive fours via a cut and a straight drive. Litchfield reached her fifty off just 33 balls, by hitting a six and a four in succession off Amanjot in the 13th over, in which UPW scored 20 runs.
Litchfield was lucky when Sanskriti Gupta dropped her on 36 at short third. Then, Harmanpreet gave her another chance when she was on 55. “We were three down early [44-3 in 6.5 overs], and then trying to rebuild a partnership, but [we were] losing continuous wickets so we never got ahead of the game,” Kerr said during the post-match press conference on Saturday.
Meanwhile, UPW fielding coach Saurabh Bandekar reckoned that two successive wins over MI gave them a big boost. “They won [WPL] twice already, so [two wins] are huge for us, especially coming at this stage [in the WPL]. Beating them twice will double up the confidence in the team,” Bandekar said.
Brief scores
UPW 187-8 in 20 overs (M Lanning 70, P Litchfield 61; A Kerr 3-28, N Sciver-Brunt 2-22) beat MI 165-6 in 20 overs (A Kerr 49*, A Kaur 41; S Pandey 2-30) by 22 runs
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