By Admin 
With the help of India’s World Cup-winning captain Harmanpreet Kaur’s unbeaten 71 runs, Mumbai Indians defeated Gujarat Giants by seven wickets in the Women’s Premier League match on Tuesday. This was Gujarat Giants’ first defeat in the tournament. Earlier, on the basis of aggressive innings of lower order Bharti Fulmali and Georgia Wareham, Gujarat Giants had scored 192 runs for five wickets.
Chasing a tough target to win, Harmanpreet completed a half-century in 33 balls, which was her tenth half-century in the tournament. Along with this, he also completed one thousand runs in WPL.
She remained unbeaten after scoring 71 runs in 43 balls with the help of seven fours and two sixes and Mumbai won with four balls to spare. Mumbai’s two wickets had fallen for 37 runs within the powerplay. After this, Harmanpreet made a partnership of 72 runs in 44 balls with Amanjot Kaur (40 runs in 26 balls).
After Amanjot’s dismissal, Nicola Carey supported the captain and scored unbeaten 37 runs in 22 balls which included six fours. Both of them made an unbroken partnership of 84 runs in 43 balls and led the team to victory.
Earlier in Gujarat’s innings, Wareham remained unbeaten after scoring 43 runs in 33 balls with the help of four fours and one six. Whereas Fulmali scored unbeaten 36 runs in 15 balls which included three sixes and three fours. She came up in the batting order after Ayushi Soni retired.
Fulmali scored 23 runs by hitting two sixes and one four to Amanjot Kaur in the last over. Gujarat scored 49 runs in the last three overs. Gujarat’s opening batsman Beth Mooney got a lease of life in the first over when Mumbai’s 17-year-old wicketkeeper Gunalan Kamalini dropped her catch.
Mooney made full use of it by hitting two fours off Healy Mathews and scored 18 runs in the second over. After the cheap dismissal of Sophie Devine (eight), Mooney and Kanika Ahuja took command in the powerplay.
Ahuja scored 35 runs in 18 balls with the help of four fours and two sixes. Whereas Mooney contributed 33 runs in 26 balls. She returned by giving a return catch to Amelia Kerr in the seventh over. After this, Ahuja along with captain Ashley Gardner took Gujarat to 96 runs for two wickets in nine overs.
However, Mumbai bowler Nicola Carey created pressure by dismissing Gardner (20) and Mathews by dismissing Ahuja (35). Ayushi could also score only 11 runs in 14 balls which affected the run rate. After this, however, Fulmali and Wareham gave strong scores to the team.
Mona