GG Women vs UPW Women, 15th Match at Lucknow, WPL, Mar 03 2025 - Match Result

That's it from us today. Hope you all enjoyed our coverage. Come back on Thursday for the next game. I am signing off on behalf of Sudarshanan and Thilak. Stay hydrated. Good night and take care!

Beth Mooney: "The way we started with the bat, obviously Harleen and I have had a really good partnership, set us up beautifully. And then, you know, had some good impetus from Deandra and Ash and Phoebe through the middle. So, that's probably a nice blueprint and hopefully we'll change the trend and some teams will start batting first. Probably during the game. I've probably faced a lot of their bowlers in international cricket and in the WPL, so I sort of understood what their play is going to be and they just gave a few people down the ground today, which is nice. I haven't had a lot of them this morning, but I think the thing about batting first is you've got to sum up the conditions pretty quickly and work out what's going to work for you within your own game plan. So, I thought Harleen, does that beautifully and brought us off to a great start. I think we're really lucky in this team. We've got a couple of left-handers in the top order, so having left and rights throughout the innings really helps, especially when there's a few different types of spinners in the opposing team. So, it certainly helps when I can help out the right-handers and face a bit of left-arm spin and they can face a few of the right-arm off-breaks for me. So, I think that's just the great thing about playing in the WPL and in these tournaments, is you get to learn about lots of different players from around the world and what makes them tick and help them out along the way. [On Mooney asking Deol to run hard] Yes, that's right. No resting at the non-strikers when I'm out there batting, so hopefully she can get that for a couple of my twos next game."

Ash Gardner: "The game was set up brilliantly by Beth Mooney with the fantastic 96. There was a part where she didn't get to those triple figures, but the partnership that she had with Harleen really set up the game and then allowed someone like D-Dog [Dottin] to come in and score some quick runs. We had plenty of runs on the board and then our bowlers did a fantastic job again. There's always things that you can probably improve on, but I think in the last five overs you probably want to limit dot balls. We probably had a few there, whether it was not giving Moons [Mooney] a strike or things like that. When you're a new batter, it's really hard to go for more ones. So maybe it was just a matter of trying to get her a strike and then if you've got more to go, make sure that you stick to your strengths, which I think people did today. There were some fantastic shots, but if anything, that was probably the really nitpicky thing, but I think we did a lot of things right tonight.

"We need to have a strong start with the ball. I mean, those types of runs are always good because you know that the other team has to go hard for a ball one. But yeah, I spoke to the team at the halfway point and said that we still need to obviously bowl well, take our chances, and it was only half a job done. So making sure that we still executed our plans, and I think we obviously set the tone really early. Deandra, doing what she does best. She's super skilful at being able to swing the ball both ways. A serious skill, and then casually doing what she does best as well. It's fantastic to see young players stepping up on the big stage. We've been so close this year in so many games where that first game, we always reflect on that, that could have went either way. And then we've played some really good cricket in between now and then, and being able to reset before each game is something that we have spoken a lot about. Making sure that each day is a different day, and each opponent, we obviously plan properly and things like that. [Playing against Delhi Capitals next] We know that it's going to be another tough match. They're all tough matches from here on in, and hopefully we can keep that winning way going."

Phoebe Litchfield: "To come out here and play the way we did, it's a very happy camp at the moment and it's just nice to see the efforts of the girls, all that we spoke about for the last three games, since our last game, to come out there and play the way we did, it's very rewarding. We had a really good practice session yesterday in the lights, just did the practice wickets and it was the best wickets we've played on in India so far and we figured that it would be similar conditions out in the middle and I think the way our openers can assess the conditions really early, Moons feedback, acknowledge really well and pretty much let us know that it's a good wicket and we need 180 plus, so the cons was a massive part for us starting first, especially on that wicket, but yeah, really pleased how we went about it. [On Mooney] Yeah, I think it was just playful, she accessed 360, she was a 360 player and she was putting balls outside the leg over cover and I think once Beth Mooney's in, it's really hard to get her out as we kind of caught the front of it in domestic cricket back home so yeah, once she gets over 20, you're in trouble and the way she hit the ball tonight was truly spectacular and a pleasure to watch. [On the bowling] Yeah, I think the way Deandra Dottin opened with the ball and the catch it was truly spectacular and I think the way they have so much control and made the ball swing early, it was really cathartic to watch from first slip and yeah, I think all of us took our chances and backed each other in the field. Yeah, just bowled spectacularly to start off and as you see, if you lose two plus wickets in the powerplay, it's really tough to come back from that."

Deepti Sharma, Warriorz captain: "It was a chaseable target and the outfield was pretty good. We lost back to back wickets and couldn't chase it down. Our top 4-5 needs to take initiative and we repeated the mistakes from the last game. Hope we don't repeat it in the coming games. The wicket looked good in the first innings and we wanted to build partnerships. We thought we could chase it down if one batter had batted through. Our middle order needs to improve, we can't only rely on our bowlers. Our batters need to step up, including myself."

10.41pm: Two huge wins from Giants and they are back in contention for playoffs. With this 81-run win, they have moved to top of the table. Mooney's unbeaten 96 propelled them to a competitive 186 for 5 on a batting-friendly pitch. But Warriorz lost four quick wickets inside the powerplay, thanks to Dottin, Kashvee and Meghna's strikes. Harris stuck around till tenth over and Henry tried to lift the team with her cameo but it was never enough as the asking rate kept increasing. Kanwar picked up three wickets to eventually bowl Warriorz out for just 105.

hat-trick ball

Kashvee. Mooney up to stumps

timeout

Dottin returns