WPL: Navigre’s blitzkrieg takes UP Warriorz to crushing win

The batter hits half-century as her side defeats Mumbai Indians by seven wickets in the Women's Premier League match in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

Bengaluru: Kiran Navgire and Alyssa Healy unleashed a remarkable assault on Mumbai Indians bowlers to power UP Warriorz to a seven-wicket win in their Women’s Premier League match here on Wednesday.

Navigre (57, 31b, 6×4, 4×6) and Healy (33, 29 balls) added 94 runs for the opening wicket stand in just 9.1 overs as the Warriorz eased past the 162-run target in 16.4 overs to hand the defending champions their first defeat of the season. Mumbai batting suffered in the absence of skipper and in-form batter Harmanpreet Kaur, who is nursing a niggle, as a laboured 55 off 47 balls from Hayley Matthews guided them to 161 for six.

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It was a competitive total but the Mumbai bowlers would not have suspected a carnage like the one Navigre and Healy unloaded on them. Navigre, who is the only Indian women batter to score a 150-plus score in senior T20s, fully exploited her promotion as opener, as Mumbai also suffered from the injury-enforced absence of lead pacer Shabnim Ismail.

Healy gave a sound start to UP’s chase with two successive boundaries off pacer Nat-Sciver Brunt, and they kept the momentum going from that point. Navigre, who made a slow start making five off six balls, slipped into her aggressive best against pacer Issy Wong, hammering her for four fours in the third over to collect 16 runs and it was just the beginning of the onslaught.

Navigre, who was dropped on 42 by Wong near the ropes off Matthews, soon completed his fifty in just 25 balls and it came through a thundering six off the West Indian spinner over long-on. But leg-spinner Amelia Kerr had player of the match Navigre stumped to give a bite of respite to Mumbai, who seemed to have gained a foothold as Wong dismissed both Healy and Tahlia McGrath in the 11th over. They needed 64 runs at this stage, but Grace Harris (38, 17 balls) and Deepti Sharma (27, 20 balls) made those runs with minimum fuss.

Earlier, Mumbai made a sedate start to their innings and had to wait till the fourth over for the first four. Yastika Bhatia (26, 22b) gave Mumbai the much-needed acceleration when the left-hander hammered 18 runs off left-arm pacer Anjali Sarvani through a sequence of three fours and a six, which was thumped right over the bowler’s head.

However, Bhatia did not last long as a pull played closer to her body off Harris ended in the hands of Rajeshwari Gayakwad. Matthews too tried to up the tempo and found the occasional big hits amid a slew of mis-time shots. Her four and six off successive balls off left-arm spinner Gayakwad were a reminder to her power and timing when in flow.

Matthews, who was dropped on 43 by Deepti off Harris, reached her fifty in 44 balls but could not kick on. Her effort to clear long-on off Gayakwad did not have elevation and distance as Harris completed an easy catch. A couple of hefty blows in the final stages by Pooja Vastrakar (18, 12b) and Wong helped MI to cross the 150-run mark.

Brief Scores: Mumbai Indians 161/6 in 20 overs (Hayley Matthews 55) lost to UP Warriorz 163/3 in 16.3 overs (Kiran Navgire 57; Issy Wong 2/30).