UP Warriorz’s playoff chances took another hit as Sophie Devine’s all-round show and Rajeshwari Gayakwad’s left-arm spin guided Gujarat Giants to a vital win.
It would be tough to find a more versatile player in women’s cricket than Sophie Devine. The New Zealand legend Sophie Devine can be considered at least two players for the price of one. Sophie Devine had been batting at the top of the order for the Giants, but after three successive defeats, the team needed a change in plan. So Sophie Devine was pushed down the order, as Danni Wyatt-Hodge came into the side as an opener. One wouldn’t say that the move was an unqualified success, with the team reduced to 65/3 in the 10th over when Sophie Devine walked in.
Beth Mooney was holding firm, but the score soon became 93/4, 105/4 and 115/6 with the scoring rate also going nowhere. Sophie Devine had to not only score her own runs, but also shepherd the lower order. An unbeaten 50 in 42 balls may not seem much in a T20 game, but the context of the match situation and the Giants’ precarious position on the points table added great significance to her effort. The pitch wasn’t the easiest to bat on. Sophie Devine was not done yet. Bowling returns of 16/2 in 3.3 overs, a catch, and a run-out finished just a normal Devine evening on the cricket field.
Two victories after three defeats on the trot at the start of their campaign had given UP Warriorz some semblance of hope that their Women’s Premier League (WPL) season had something to play for, but the 45-run reversal against Gujarat Giants in Vadodara on Thursday – in which their batters failed miserably on an admittedly tricky pitch – put Meg Lanning’s team’s playoff chances in further jeopardy.
A team is likely to feel satisfied if it restricts the opposition to 153/8 in the first 20 overs. The Warriorz would have fancied their chances at 39/1 and then at 57/2, but they faltered against the Giants’ mixture of seam and spin to fall well short, and Ashleigh Gardner’s side took a big step towards the playoffs.
Pitch Report and Toss
Pitch Report : We are pitch No. 6, 55m square boundaries both sides. The straight hit on the ground is 66 meters. This is a black soil wicket, The surface is hard. It’s rolled well. There are visible cracks. Now, that suggests that the wicket is dry. So in the first innings, it may not come that much onto the bat, but second innings, under lights and with dew, the ball will skid through. So it gets better for batting, gets better for chasing. Since it’s black soil, because of the dew, it comes onto the bat later on.
Now for the bowlers, it is a challenge, but they have to be disciplined with the line, especially keeping the stumps in play. We’ve seen in the previous game, the bowlers, especially the RCB bowlers… they were really good onto the stumps. The batters really had to sort of invent some shots to get through the infield. The square boundaries are shorter. So anything short, anything wider will be punished. So bowlers do have a role cut for them. When teams arrived here in Vadodara they thought it would be another high-scoring venue but two games into this leg, there is evidence that it won’t be as batter-friendly as Navi Mumbai.
Ash Gardner after the loss last match wasn’t pleased about batters losing out on scoring opportunities and playing cross-batted shots to throw it away. She wants it simple – bowl stump to stump and then with the bat play with a straight bat to the maximum extent possible. The Giants definitely have the advantage of having already experienced the conditions here as the Warriorz are yet to taste the surface here. reckons Stacy Ann King and Mithali Raj in their Pitch report.
Toss : UP Warriorz Women skipper Meg Lanning won the toss and opted to field with no change in the Playing XI. Gujarat Giants skipper Ashleigh Gardner batting first makes one change in the Playing XI bringing in Danielle Wyatt Hodge in place of Georgia Wareham.
Sophie Devine’s solid half century powers GG to 153 for 8 in 20 overs
On a black-soil surface that had a lot of cracks, Gaud landed the ball in right areas to trouble the batters. She conceded two fours in the opening over, one via a fortuitous inside edge off Danni Wyatt-Hodge, who came in for Georgia Wareham. But Gaud made amends in her next over and bowled Wyatt-Hodge with a ripper. She landed a length ball on one of the cracks around off, which made the ball deviate away just a little bit.
Wyatt-Hodge played for the original line of the ball but was undone by the slight away movement. Gaud then had Anushka Sharma caught behind in her next over, two balls after the batter got a thick outside edge away for four. GG scored 52 for 2 in the powerplay; Gaud had figures of 3-0-16-2. She closed out her spell with four more dots to finish with 2 for 18.
Put in to bat, Giants made a solid start with Danielle Wyatt-Hodge, playing her first match of the season, cracking three boundaries early in the innings. Her stay lasted for only eight balls, but Beth Mooney (38) steadied the innings in the company of Anushka Sharma, Ash Gardner and Sophie Devine for a brief while. A bit scratchy and out of form this season, Mooney couldn’t get the move on like she would’ve wanted. Just when it seemed like she was about to cut loose with a couple of boundaries off Chloe Tryon, she threw her wicket away in the 13th over, mistiming a shot to mid off.
The rest of the bowlers then built on that to slow down GG. Even with a set Beth Mooney in the middle, GG could not manage to change gears. In the ten overs after the powerplay, they managed only three sixes and a four, scoring 59 between 7-16. Sure, the surface was slightly slow, even if dew had set in early. That made strokeplay tough. But Sophie Ecclestone, Chloe Tryon, Deepti Sharma and Asha Sobhana all managed to keep the ball away from the batters’ hitting arc. Result? 50 dot balls in 16 overs.
Two of the four boundaries GG scored in the middle overs, including the only six, came off Sophie Devine’s bat. That was on the fourth ball she faced. But even she was not insulated from the effects of the slow surface. Sophie Devine scored 30 off her first 33 balls she faced. She should have been back out for 21 off 24 but Phoebe Litchfield dropped a sitter at deep midwicket off Asha. That resulted in the run-out of Bharti Fulmali, who has scores of 14 off 15 and 5 off 5 after her India recall, after she ended up at the striker’s end, where Sophie Devine was ball-watching.
Sophie Devine, though, is not one to let mistakes go unpunished. She blazed 20 off the last seven balls she faced to complete her second half-century of this edition. That included two sixes in the last over of the innings bowled by Shikha Pandey, which cost UPW 16.
Having paced away to 38 for 1 within four overs, the scoring rate had clawed back. With Warriorz striking at regular intervals, Giants found themselves at 93 for 4 in the 13th over. Sophie Devine measured her attack even in the death overs, but with wickets falling regularly at the other end while the batters looked for the big shots, Giants couldn’t find the required pace. However, Sophie Devine clubbed a couple of sixes in the last over, which yielded 16 runs, to register her half century and help Giants to a competitive 153 for 8.
Rajeshwari Gayakwad’s 3-fer and all round show from Sophie Devine powers GG to 48 runs win over UP Warriorz.
In response, Warriorz struggled in the chase. Kiran Navgire fell for another duck; this time stumped to a delivery down the leg side by Renuka Singh. The onus fell yet again on Meg Lanning and Pheobe Litchfield to control the innings. It was going well till the fifth over when Lanning missed a pull to a delivery that didn’t rise as high as she had anticipated before she too was stumped in similar fashion to that of Navgire.
A direct hit to almost dismiss Mooney, a fantastic low catch to finally get rid of her, and a smart catch running backward to end Kanika Ahuja’s stay – Kiran Navgire had had a pretty good day on the field. But her wretched run with the bat continued after she overbalanced while trying to flick a ball down leg, and the ball ricocheted off Mooney’s pads onto the stumps.
She fell for a two-ball duck to follow scores of 0, 10, 0, 5 and 1. Meg Lanning had started to find her fluency when a freak dismissal ended her stay. She looked to pull Kashvee Gautam only for the ball to deflect off her thigh guard, onto the back of her leg and then onto the stumps.
However, Litchfield, with her range of strokes, kept the scoreboard ticking. Even as Harleen Deol struggled to pick pace in her innings, at the time of the southpaw’s dismissal in the eighth over when she was dismissed playing a reverse sweep, Warriorz were very much in the hunt of the target. But her dismissal triggered a collapse.
A lot rested on Litchfield’s shoulders and she found boundaries regularly in the powerplay. She even greeted Ashleigh Gardner with a reverse sweep over short third. But her next attempt at that shot two balls later resulted in her dismissal, finding Renuka at short third. From there it was to be a test of UPW’s middle-order which failed. Harleen Deol failed to force the pace on a slow track and was out for 3 off 12.
Deepti, Shweta Sehrawat and Asha all fell trying to force the pace against Rajeshwari Gayakwad, brought in for Tanuja Kanwar who was wicketless in her three innings with the ball.
Gayakwad, returning to the XI, ripped through the middle order, sending back Deepti Sharma, Shweta Sehrawat and S Asha in quick succession. By then, Harleen’s innings was also cut short for a painful 12-ball three. Sophie Devine returned for her second spell and ran through the tail while Tryon attempted to put up a solo fight. Warriorz were bundled out in the 18th over for 108.
Presentations and Road Ahead
Meg Lanning the loosing UP-Warriorz skipper said : Yeah, yeah, it went for a long time. It felt like anyway, both innings seem to take a while, but… Yeah, there was a bit happening. We sort of had our chances through the game. I thought we put ourselves in a nice position with the ball. Things just didn’t go our way and probably didn’t take our chances. And then, yeah, unfortunately, never got going with the bat. But full credit to Gujarat.
They stuck it out, fought it out really hard. And on this sort of wicket, that’s what it takes. (on their changes to the side) Yeah, I mean, we planned for all their batters just in case there was a change. So, we certainly knew what we were coming up against. And, yeah, I guess Soph going into the middle, she was able to hold that innings together, I guess, and then accelerate towards the end. And that was probably the difference in the game.
(on Goud) Yeah, I think so. And with the new ball, she can get a bit of movement off the wicket. And when you get sort of a bowler with some confidence and going well and taking wickets as well, you want to keep them going. So I think she’s been excellent for us these last couple of games in particular.
(on their next games) Yeah, plenty of time to think about things. So, yeah, obviously disappointed tonight. Would have been nice to go into the break off the back of a win, but we’re still in it. We’ve still got a chance. We’ll take a few days to sort of rest and reset and then get back into it with a couple of days training. And we obviously need to win both games now to give ourselves a chance. So it’s very clear for us and we’ve certainly got the group to be able to do it. So a couple of days rest and then get back into it.
Ashleigh Gardner the winning GG Women skipper said : Yeah, I think we scrapped really well with the bat. I think, you know, Soph kind of showed that we took the momentum from the backend of the innings into our bowling innings, and we knew that if we could try and get to 150, that it was going to be a defendable total.
And yeah, our bowlers did the job early and then kind of put the pressure back onto them, and ultimately on a wicket like this, being able to take wickets early to kind of stall the momentum is all I can ask. (difference in venues from Navi Mumbai to here) It is very different. Yeah, I never would have thought that red soil to black soil was such a stark difference, but, you know, the ball hasn’t bounced anywhere near as much.
There’s certainly not as much pace in the wicket. So I guess as a batting unit, you need to think straight for as long as possible and not, I guess, play the shot that I played across the line. So thinking straight for longer periods and then obviously when the ball is off the stumps, that’s when you can go square across it. So I think it’s, yeah, obviously the way to go. It’s kind of the blueprint. It’s a very simple method.
And then with the ball, making sure that we are hitting the stumps as, I guess, as often as possible to, I guess, bring in those modes of dismissals if batters do want to go square across. (what was the talk in the camp before the game?) Yeah, we just spoke about it before the game to really fight, you know, going into these last three games. All the teams that we’re playing are on an even playing field, we’re all on the same points.
So it’s almost like restarting our campaign again and knowing that if we play our best cricket, that, you know, we can go all the way. So I guess trying to stay really positive in that. You know, out of the losses, there was plenty of learnings, which is always a really positive thing as well. So I guess as a captain, yeah, we’re trying to implement things and just try to do the good things for longer periods of time, whether that’s with bat or ball.
And even in the field, and I guess when you take your chances, you give yourself the best opportunity to win games of cricket. (on Rajeshwari) Yeah, she had an impact and I’m obviously so happy for her. She’s obviously probably not bowled as many overs as she might have imagined coming into this, but it’s really pleasing to see that she got the opportunity today and I guess really grabbed it with both hands.
And, you know, I think she was kind of that bowler that almost turned the momentum for us. She took some really key wickets and obviously she’s got so much experience as well, so she knows how to bowl in these conditions, which, you know, as a foreign player, to really lean on experience like hers, yeah, is awesome to see.
Rajeshwari Gayakwad Player of the Match for her 3-fer said :  It feels really good. I got a chance to play after a long time, and today I did well too, so I’m very happy. I had been waiting for this moment for a long time, so it feels great. (what did you differently today?) Nothing was different. I just bowled to my strengths today. And when your support staff backs you, it gives you a lot of confidence. That’s exactly what I did today.
They showed a lot of support in me, and that became my biggest strength today. It was much better. And the wicket was also helping, so I bowled accordingly today and was successful. (which wicket she liked the most?) For me, whenever I plan, I always think about taking the wicket of a key batter, because getting good players out gives a different kind of joy. I wanted that wicket but didn’t get it – Renuka got it.
Sorry, not Renuka, Kashvee got it. And I also got Deepti’s wicket. And usually when a lefty comes in, maybe they hesitate to give me the ball, but I actually like bowling to lefties. And I got Deepti’s wicket, so I’m very happy. (anything new you have learnt recently?) In terms of skill, I’ve focused more on myself and worked more on my strengths. That’s all. I’ve backed myself, and I’m getting success from that.
Sophie Devine’s all-round effort (50 & 2-16) and Rajeshwari Gayakwad’s spell of 3 for 16 paved the way for Gujarat Giants to return to winning ways in Women’s Premier League 2026. They ended UP Warriorz two-match winning streak, beating the Meg Lanning-led side for the second time this season and moved to second spot on the points table with their massive 45-run win in Vadodara on Thursday.
For a large part of Gujarat Giants’ (GG) innings, Sophie Devine looked to power the ball but did not get the desired result. She looked spent having run hard between the wickets, with UP Warriorz (UPW) bowlers hardly giving anything away. But in a typical Sophie Devine trademark fashion, she managed to turn things around, finishing 50 not out off 42 balls to help GG to 153 for 8, a total that proved 45 too many for UPW.
If the middle overs (7-16) of GG’s innings felt laborious, it proved to be a freefall for UPW: 59 for 3 vs 50 for 6. That was also symbolic of the contrasting conditions in Navi Mumbai and Vadodara. Kranti Gaud and Sophie Ecclestone returned two wickets apiece to restrict GG but Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Sophie Devine and Renuka Singh had better outings with the ball to topple UPW. Sophie Devine’s two wickets also meant she went to the top of the bowling charts with 11.
UPW were coming off a five-day break and playing their first game of the Vadodara leg. It worked in GG’s favour as they ended their three-match losing streak to break away from the four-point logjam on the table to jump to second. With four defeats in six games, UPW face a must-win in their last two matches, and they have another week-long break – a position Meg Lanning hasn’t found herself in in the WPL.
Gujarat jump from last on the table to 2nd after this win. Also they end their three-match losing streak. Sophie Devine the star for her side. Runs, wickets and a run-out in the field for the New Zealand veteran. Couple of unfortunate dismissals of the openers hurt UPW-W. Both Navgire and Lanning went to leg-side wickets.
Litchfield fell to her favorite reverse-sweep after again getting a start. Harleen got stuck and holed out. The lower middle-order failed as Deepti fell LBW and it was left to Chloe Tryon to wage a lone battle at the end. Gujarat took wickets at regular intervals and cantered to an easy win in the end. Just the five bowlers used and all of them were among the wickets for Gujarat. They attacked the stumps and forced the errors.
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