WPL 2023: Gujarat Giants appears to be like to carry down all-conquering Mumbai Indians

Table-toppers Mumbai Indians will tackle fourth-placed Gujarat Giants on the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday.

Having confronted one another within the season opener, the Giants can be hoping to place up a greater present in its first reverse fixture, provided that it misplaced by 143 runs final day trip.

“Since we have a pretty young squad and we played the first match of the WPL, a historic moment really, they were slightly overwhelmed by the whole thing,” mentioned Gujarat head coach, Rachel Haynes.

However, with a captain as skilled as Harmanpreet Kaur main it and loads of different seasoned campaigners, Mumbai has appeared just like the extra balanced aspect with all its bases lined.

Injury considerations, a quest to seek out the correct mixture and an overreliance on Harleen Deol on the prime of the order have emerged as tropes for the Giants.

More usually than not, Deol has needed to shoulder the accountability of giving Gujarat a good begin. Sophia Dunkley did present her much-needed help on the prime of their match in opposition to RCB, the place she bought the quickest fifty of the event on her strategy to a scintillating 65 off 28.

However, regardless of seeming like Gujarat had lastly fastened a couple of of their points, it dropped Sophia Dunkley within the subsequent match and introduced in newly-drafted Laura Wolvaardt.

“Laura was a like-for-like replacement for Beth Mooney (ruled out due to injury) given how well she has performed at the international level recently,” mentioned Mithali Raj, Gujarat’s mentor.

While Wolvaardt was the best run-getter within the 2023 Women’s T20 World Cup with 230 runs, sending her in a day after she joined the crew mid-way by means of the event, didn’t yield the outcomes the Giants maybe anticipated.

On the bowling entrance, Mumbai has reaped the good thing about scouting Bengal participant Saika Ishaque, who has been a vital wicket-taker for it and now holds the purple cap. It was Ishaque’s 4/11 that grew to become the discuss of the city within the season opener in opposition to Gujarat. The Giants might want to go in with a plan in place for Ishaque, because it can’t afford to have its crew unravel the best way it did resulting from her exploits.

“Sneh is fit and raring to go,” mentioned the GG crew administration in a press convention forward of the fixture. Given the duty they’ve at hand, Captain Sneh Rana and Ashleigh Gardner should carry out to their calibre with the ball to do some harm. Especially given, that Sneh was accountable for Harmanpreet and Pooja Vastrakar’s dismissals within the final match and Gardner bought the higher of the damaging Hayley Matthews.

“With the second round just beginning, our aim is to reach that number three position..the tournament is still wide open,” mentioned coach Haynes. The coach additionally believes that with their file at Brabourne being higher ‘the girls will go in with more confidence.’

With Gujarat hoping to claw its strategy to third within the desk, in time for the playoffs, and Mumbai sitting comfortably on the prime, the match might need extra to supply than what seems at face worth.