Mumbai: Mumbai Indians, who made a great start to the first season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) with five consecutive wins, finally did what was expected. Mumbai, captained by Harmanpreet Kaur, has made it to the finals of the first season of WPL, where it will compete with Delhi Capitals for the title. Mumbai thrashed UP Warriors by 72 runs in a very one-sided manner in the eliminator match on Friday evening. Nate Siver-Brunt’s all-round performance and Easy Wong’s hat-trick played the biggest role in Mumbai’s victory.
In the very first match of the tournament, Mumbai had made a strong start to the tournament by defeating Gujarat Giants in a one-sided manner. Since then, Mumbai had announced its strength and intentions. He did have a few setbacks in the middle, but when it was most needed to show his mettle, Mumbai did a tremendous job.
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝!
Mark your calendars folks 🗓️@mipaltan will face the @DelhiCapitals in the summit clash of the #TATAWPL pic.twitter.com/gxsXQQ6Ihf
— Women’s Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) March 24, 2023
On the basis of the explosive innings of Nate Siver-Brunt, Mumbai had scored 182 runs while batting first. In such a situation, UP wanted a quick start but it happened exactly the opposite. She lost 3 big wickets, including captain Alyssa Healy, for 21 runs in the fifth over, including Tahlia McGrath, who was in tremendous form in the tournament. She was run out. After this, Kiran Navagire tried to counter attack and hit some big shots. He needed help from the other end but even an explosive batsman like Grace Harris failed this time.
Navgire’s innings showed a slight ray of hope to UP but Easy Wong destroyed that too in the 13th over. The 20-year-old fast bowler from England collected a hat-trick by taking the wickets of Navgire, Simran Sheikh and Sophie Ecclestone in three consecutive balls. She became the first bowler to take a hat-trick in WPL. After this only formality was left and that too was completed with the last wicket at 110 in the 18th over.
Mumbai batted first in this eliminator match at DY Patil Stadium. For that, opener Yastika Bhatia and Haley Mathews made a better start. However, both could not make big scores. Mumbai’s situation could have been very bad if Ecclestone had taken the catch of Nate Siver. She was only on 6 runs at that time. After this, the English all-rounder rained runs. He completed his half-century in just 26 balls.
