WPL Game 3: UPW v/s GG
Beyond the headlines; Sharma's spin proficiency, Mishra's variations, Ecclestone's control, & more!
The Gujarat Giants beat the UP Warriorz by 6 wickets, in a game that was decided about halfway through the first innings.
Unlike against RCB, GG built on their quick powerplay wicket haul today as Priya Mishra bowled a dream spell to pick up McGrath, Harris and Sharma. Despite a slow start to their innings, Ash Gardner guided GG home to their first victory of the season.
But, what happened beyond the headlines?
UPW’s power play batting needs more power
Written by Ritwika Dhar. You can follow her on Twitter.
Ash Gardner & Deandra Dottin played against the UPW openers’ weaknesses perfectly today.
Dottin bowled short to Kiran Navgire, which led to her wicket from a sudden, in-swinging fuller delivery. Gardner kept baiting Vrinda Dinesh with stump-to-stump bowling that was begging to be swept, and eventually the young opener missed one that hit her stumps.
But, this is not a new trend for UPW. They have never had a great opening pair. During last year’s WPL group stage, UPW’s top 3 scored the least runs amongst all the WPL teams – 403 runs with a poor average of 16.79 at an SR of 114.48. Every other team’s top 3 scored at over 22 average with 121+ SR. As such, UPW also had the lowest run-rate in powerplays in 2024 – 6.75 among the 5 teams.
Unsurprisingly, this led to a lot of chopping and changing. UPW used 6 players in the top 3, which was only matched in number by bottom-of-the-table GG. However, GG at least had a settled opening partnership in Laura Wolvaardt and Beth Mooney.
And now, UPW need to figure out this problem without their captain, settled opener, and highest run-getter Alyssa Healy (428 runs in 17 inns at 130.8 SR). The senior management seem to have landed on a strategy of hoping domestic success can be replicated on the WPL stage.
Vrinda Dinesh (157.1), Uma Chetry (154) and Kiran Navgire (150) scored with 150+ SR in the Senior Women’s T20 Challenger and Senior Women’s T20 Trophy in November 2024. This seems to have given UPW confidence to go with an Indian top-heavy attack.
It’s a bold strategy since no other team has an Indian opening combo, let alone a top four made of domestic players only.
Data from ESPNcricinfo.
Deepti is UPW’s Queen-of-all-trades
Written by Shayan Ahmad Khan. You can follow him on Twitter.
Coming in at 22-2 today, Deepti Sharma scored 39 runs off 27 balls. During her time at the crease today, everyone else on the other end scored 39 runs off 46 balls.
This is nothing new though. Sharma has been UPW’s middle overs batting saviour for a while. Going back to the 2024 WPL, Sharma has scored 334 runs at an average of 83.5 and a strike rate of 137.44, scoring a boundary every 5.06 balls.
The key aspect of her dominance in the WPL has been her gameplay against off spin. In the last two season of the WPL, she has scored 73 runs off 46 balls without being dismissed – unlike most left-handers.
Her first scoring shot today was a sweep for four – a productive shot for her in the format – off Ash Gardner. Deepti would go on to get two more boundaries – another sweep followed by a drive – off the Gujarat Giants skipper when she came back in the eighth over.
Deepti also scored 12 runs off 11 balls combined versus leg spinner Priya Mishra and left-arm finger spinner Tanuja Kanwar – both of whom turned the ball into her as compared to away spin in Gardner’s case. Her only boundary off them was a cut shot versus the wrist spinner.
Her innings ended with Gardner taking the catch off Priya’s bowling, as the pressure ramped up with wickets falling regularly on the other end.
But, today showed Sharma’s incredible value to UPW’s middle order. In addition to her exploits against the varied spin attack, she also picked up 14 runs off 10 balls against the quicks including two fours.
Due to her elite performances against spin - including the rarity of being a left hander who can handle balls that spin away from her - she could be a useful floater depending on UPW’s needs in a game.
Data from Cricmetric and ESPNcricinfo.
Mishra solved GG’s middle over issues
Written by Aksay Ram M. You can follow him on Twitter, Instagram & YouTube.
In their first match against RCB, the Gujarat Giants managed to take two wickets early in the powerplay, only to let the grip loosen during the middle overs. Today, they picked up two wickets early again, but looked like they were going let UPW back into the match too.
But, Priya Mishra’s smart bowling and willingness to learn on the fly ensured history did not repeat itself.
In her first over, Mishra was bowling too slow and too wide. Unsurprinsgly, Uma Chetry punished her for it by picking up a couple of boundaries. Instead of bowing her head, Mishra learnt her lesson. This wasn’t a pitch to bowl slow leggies, as the batters got a lot more time on the back foot to adjust to the deviations.
During the second over, she started playing with her pace. The first ball to Tahlia McGrath was tossed up and in the early 70s kph. As McGrath got ready to play the next ball on the back foot, Mishra pushed it quicker through the air and pinned her LBW.
Against Grace Harris, Mishra did the opposite. Pushed the first ball quicker, beat her inside edge, but also beat the keeper and ran away to the boundary. At this point, Mishra took an interesting risk. Grace Harris is very good against leg spin, averaging 29.8 at a strike rate of 159.
So, Mishra played on Harris’ confidence. The next ball was a loopy one, which Harris clearly wasn’t expecting. A slog, a miss on the inside edge, and Mishra had two Aussie wickets in an over.
Against Deepti Sharma, Mishra used another pace variation to induce a dismissal. The first quicker ball at 79.5kph was dispatched to the boundary, and the follow up 71 kph ball deceived her beautifully. Sharma was early into the shot and skied one to Ash Gardner’s safe hands.
Mishra’s variations and guile provided an immediate improvement from their last game for GG. Against RCB, they conceded 111 runs (at a runs per over of 11.1) during the middle overs, while picking up just two wickets. Today, GG only conceded 70 runs at a RPO of 6.7 during the middle overs, while picking up 5 wickets.
Data from Cricmetric and the Jio broadcast.
Ecclestone almost turned the tide by herself
Written by Shayan Ahmad Khan. You can follow him on Twitter.
Control and accuracy are the words that come to mind when you think of Sophie Ecclestone.
Before the T20 World Cup, Good Areas’ Jarrod Kimber looked at her wicket profile in T20Is compared to the other finger spinners. Top-end bowlers like Ash Gardner, Deepti Sharma and Jess Jonassen dismissed less than 40% of their victims via bowleds and LBWs, while Ecclestone was up at 55%. These are all elite finger spinners, but her consistency in keeping the stumps in play separates her from even them.
In today’s game, Ecclestone was similarly magnificent, ending with figures of 4-0-16-2.
Overall, in her first three overs, she conceded just one boundary, took two important wickets, and no batter could cut her. One thing that did go in her favour today – relatively – was that the left-handed Beth Mooney was out before Ecclestone’s spell started.
When she signed off after her first spell at the end of the 9th over, GG still needed 85 runs off 66 balls, for a required run rate of 7.28 per over. When she returned to bowl her fourth over, the required run rate had dropped to less than five and a half runs per over, and there was nothing she could do.
A fascinating aspect of today’s bowling was the she wasn’t used in her favoured phase - the death overs - today. She bowled two overs while the field was up, and yet nobody could score off her. Despite the low total to defend, her bowling almost gave UPW a chance.
“I just concentrate, I want to hit the stumps, to be honest, that is all I am thinking about, to hit the stumps and you can't go too far wrong,” said Sophie Ecclestone during the 2022 ODI World Cup. She certainly lived up to that ambition today, even if she ended up on the wrong side of the result.
How Gardner turned a disadvantage to an advantage
Written by Aksay Ram M. You can follow him on Twitter, Instagram & YouTube.
When Ash Gardner walked in after 1.3 overs, GG were reeling at 2/2. On a low bounce wicket against opponents with four spinners in their ranks, it looked a daunting task.
She started off slowly with just 1 run scored off her first 7 balls faced. Three were bowled at her stumps, while the other four were bowled to her off side.
UPW chose to go all in on a strategy to get Gardner out. The UPW bowlers aimed for a stump-to-stump line, and aimed to either bowl her or trap her LBW using the pitch’s low bounce. But, the in-form Aussie turned the tables on them by using her power game.
Once she realised the UPW strategy, she started giving herself room to drag every shot towards the leg side. As a result, Gardner was able to hit away even those balls that kept, picking up three 6s and four 4s. Against the spinners, she occasionally came down the track to neglect the low bounce and met the ball before it pitched.
This strategy saw her score an incredible 98% of her runs through leg side, with just a solitary run on the off side. By the time Tahlia McGrath got her out against the run of play, the game was in the hands of UPW elite finisher, Deandra Dottin.
After Nat Sciver-Brunt pulled off an audacious innings by aiming for the square boundary yesterday, Gardner showed similar ingenuity to turn a disadvantage to her advantage tonight.
Analysing India’s powerplay pacers
Written by Krithika Venkatesan, who works as a talent scout with RCB. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Four Indian pacers - Sayali Satghare, Kashvee Gautam, Saima Thakor and Kranti Goud - bowled in today's match, but only one of them picked up a wicket.
The Gujarat Giants used Satghare and Gautam for two overs each in the powerplay. Satghare opened the bowling and conceded a couple of boundaries in the first over, both dispatched by Kiran Navgire from deliveries outside off. The batters were content nudging around the other four balls, which were delivered at a good length and seamed back in.
Notably, she bowled six such deliveries that seamed in, conceding just three runs. However, whenever she pitched elsewhere, she was taken for runs. She ended with 0/20 in her two overs.
Gautam, playing just her second match in the WPL, was the most economical amongst the lot, finishing with 1/15 in her four overs. She bowled 13 dot deliveries, the most among all pacers today. Only Sophie Ecclestone had more dot balls, with 15.
The Chandigarh pacer, known for consistently hitting a fuller length and angling the ball in, stuck to the same today. She bowled 18 of her 24 deliveries in that area, 11 of which were dot balls and six of them came during the powerplay.
While three pacers and Ashleigh Gardner bowled in the powerplay for Gujarat Giants, UP Warriorz used three spinners and two pacers. Kranti Goud and Saima Thakor bowled one over each in the powerplay.
Goud, on debut, started well with four dot balls, three of which were at a good length. However, she was dispatched for back-to-back boundaries when she attempted a yorker and missed her mark. Notably, in her second spell, she bowled two more dot balls when she pitched at a good length outside off and nearly dismissed Deandra Dottin with a similar delivery but was dropped by Deepti Sharma. She finished with 0/15 from her two overs.
Meanwhile, Thakor had a forgettable opening game. She bowled only one over in the match. She tried everything in search of the right length, but a short delivery and a couple of fuller deliveries were taken for sixes. She ended up conceding 20 runs in her solitary over tonight.
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