UP Warriorz will “host” Mumbai Indians at the Brabourne’s batting paradise on Sunday (March 12), hoping to end the dream run of the table-toppers and keep their winning streak going. UP Warriorz has the strongest spin attack in the tournament, and Mumbai Indians has the breakout spin star of the tournament.
So far, Mumbai hasn’t lost a game. They easily beat Gujarat Giants (143 runs), Royal Challengers Bangalore (9 wickets), and Delhi Capitals (8 wickets), making those games almost boring and one-sided. The Purple Cap is currently held by left-arm spinner Saika Ishaque, who has been a great player with the ball. Hayley Matthews, on the other hand, is only second in the race for the Orange Cap.
Even though Harmanpreet Kaur has had bad luck with the three tosses, the team has barely made a mistake. This is due to the depth of their XI, which covers all bases. MI has four bowlers who are in the top 10 for taking wickets, and they are the only team to have taken all 30 of the other team’s wickets.
So, Alyssa Healy’s best score of the season, a 96, came at the perfect time for the Warriorz. The fact that their captain is back to making runs will be a big relief for a team whose batting has been a bit shaky so far because a number of players haven’t done enough to help the team score runs so far. So, UPW changed their order by moving opener Shweta Sehrawat down the list because she often got into trouble when balls hit her outside her off-stump. The player with the most runs in the U19 World Cup had been hit twice while trying to cut or drive. The Warriors’ left-right combination didn’t work at first, so they made a change by promoting Devika Vaidya, which made the left-right combination work. Even so, Healy almost single-handedly led the poor chase as they beat RCB by 10 wickets.
But that win was made possible by the spin attack of Warriorz, which is made up of Sophie Ecclestone, Deepti Sharma, and Rajeshwari Gayakwad. The three bowlers took all of the RCB wickets that fell (two were run outs), which was 8 for 65 in 11.3 overs. This was on a track that still had a lot for batters to do if they worked at it, but not much for bowlers of any kind.
Even though these two captains have recently had different ideas, Sunday’s super clash should be a lot of fun. It will be a match between a team that is slowly starting to play up to the top potential it showed on paper after the auctions and a team that has never been challenged so far this season.
When: March 12 at 7:30 PM IST
Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai
What to look for: Even though RCB’s score dropped to 138 on Friday, Ellyse Perry said that CCI’s pitch was a “absolute belter.” Mumbai will be able to play on the same field where they beat RCB by nine wickets earlier this week.
Team Updates
UP Warriorz:
Warriorz has been very good at putting the right people in the right positions, even if that meant putting some of their most experienced heads and best players on the bench. For their second straight game at the Brabourne, they would probably keep the same XI. This gives them more spin options and a slightly longer batting order for the expected conditions.
Alyssa Healy (captain and wicketkeeper), Shweta Sehrawat, Kiran Navgire, Tahlia McGrath, Deepti Sharma, Grace Harris, Devika Vaidya, Simran Shaikh, Sophie Ecclestone, Anjali Sarvani, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, and Anjali Sarvani are likely to be in the XI.
Mumbai Indians:
MI chose their best XI on the first night, which had a good mix of domestic players who hadn’t been capped yet, and has stuck with it since. Their XI has a lot of different bowling options, so they can play well in any situation. The top team in the league may not be making any changes just yet. Why fix something that’s not broken?
Probable XI: Hayley Matthews, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Amelia Kerr, Pooja Vastrakar, Issy Wong, Amanjot Kaur, Humaira Kazi, Jintimani Kalita, Saika Ishaque
How did they say it?
“Jon [Lewis, UPW’s coach] pretty much explained the style of play, and he has always thought that spin is important in T20 cricket, which is how women’s cricket started. So, yeah, that’s what we did, and I was more than fine with it. You already know that I love spinners. The new bowlers can dull the shine a bit, and we keep going on and on. From an auction point of view, it was like trying to compliment all of them as well “Lisa Sthalekar, Warriorz’s mentor, talks about the team’s auction strategy, which involves a lot of spins.
“The bowlers make my job easier because they are willing to bowl and ready to give us those breakthroughs. When there are so many ways to bowl, it makes my job easy. Our bowlers deserve praise for the way they’re getting to their fields. We sat down and talked after the last game. We bowled a few bad balls in the last game, but today we stuck to our plans and skills “Harmanpreet Kaur was very happy with her bowling team after they quickly beat DC.
