Cricket

'Yogi ne Modi ko hara diya' - Fans react as Gujarat suffer second loss in Women's T20 League with defeat by 3 wickets against UP

Gujarat suffered another heartbreaking loss by 3 wickets as they couldn't defend 52 runs in the last 3 overs.

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Daniel S
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Grace Harris after scoring winning runs (Source - Twitter)

Grace Harris after scoring winning runs (Source - Twitter)

The Gujarat-based franchise didn’t have a great start in the augural season of the Women’s T20 League as they lost the opening match against Mumbai by a huge margin of 143 runs on Saturday. However, they looked forward to putting up a better show against the UP-based franchise in the 3rd match of the tournament on Sunday, March 5 at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. But that didn't happen as they suffered another heartbreaking loss by 3 wickets, they couldn't defend 52 runs in the last 3 overs.

However, this time they produced a much better performance with the bat as compared to the effort they put in against Mumbai on Saturday. This time, they opted to bat first after winning the toss. Unfortunately, they missed their regular skipper Beth Mooney after her injury in the first match. Sneh Rana was appointed as the stand-in captain of the team.

Openers Sabbhineni Meghana and Sophia Dunkley looked well initially but couldn’t last long on the pitch and both were dismissed in the powerplay. Harleen Deol came to bat at no.3 and played a beautiful knock of 46 runs off 32 balls which included 7 fours. She also stitched a handy partnership of 44 runs with Ashleigh Gardener and the rest of the work was done by Dayalan Hemalatha in the end as she played a cameo and helped the team to achieve a fighting total of 169 runs.

Brilliant match-winning performance by Grace Harris

Deepti Sharma and Sohie Ecclestone picked up 2 wickets each. Chasing the target, UP had a horrible start as they lost their first three wickets inside the powerplay. However, later Kiran Navgire put up a brilliant show as she smashes a half-century and played a beautiful knock of 53 runs off 43 balls but she didn't get support from the other end.

UP started losing back-to-back wickets after Navgire's dismissal but Grace Harris came as a surprise for Gujarat as she snatched a much-deserving win from them. Harris played a magnificent unbeaten knock of 59 runs off just 26 deliveries which included 7 fours and 3 sixes. She was well supported by Ecclestone as they both stitched a match-winning 70 runs partnership.

Here's how fans reacted:

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