Gujarat Giants held their composure in a high-octane encounter to defeat UP Warriorz by 10 runs, with strong contributions from Georgia Wareham, Anushka Sharma, Ashleigh Gardner, and Sophie Devine helping them withstand a spirited chase led by Phoebe Litchfield, Shweta Sehrawat, and Asha Sobhana. Georgia Wareham delivered a standout all-round performance to earn the Player of the Match award as Gujarat Giants edged past UP Warriorz.
Australian batter Phoebe Litchfield’s commanding knock of 78 off just 40 balls went in vain as Gujarat Giants beat UP Warriorz by 10 runs in a high-scoring Women’s Premier League match here on Saturday. Sent in to bat, captain Ashleigh Gardner struck a scintillating 65 before Georgia Wareham played a late cameo of 27 not out off just 10 balls as Gujarat Giants posted an impressive 207 for 4.
Pitch Report and Toss
Pitch Report : “We are here for the first of two games today. We are on pitch number 4, two over from yesterday’s game and it looks like a pretty good deck. The boundaries are 53 metres to my right, 58 to the left, and 66 metres straight down the ground. There’s good grass cover as well. We did see a little more turn than expected yesterday.
It was the first game, so there were a few nerves around, but what really stood out to me was the death overs. RCB didn’t quite nail their execution at the back end, and the key area was right where we’re standing now. The strike rate from this length – the slot – was incredible. Batters moved down the pitch, bowlers missed their length, and anything in that danger zone went at over 200.
If you pushed the length a little fuller, or went slightly back of a length with the slower ball, it was far more effective. So I’d be encouraging the UP Warriorz and Gujarat Giants bowlers today to stay out of the slot and hit those fuller lengths – yorkers if you can – especially at the death,” reckons Charles Dagnall and Kate Cross.
Toss : UP Warriorz skipper Meg Lanning won the toss and chose to bowl first. GG skipper Ashleigh Gardner who also wanted to bowl first was happy that they got to bat first.
Ashleigh Gardner’s half century and cameos from Anushka Sharma and Georgia Wareham powers GG to 207 for 4 in 20 overs
After losing the toss, the Giants put on a terrific display with the bat even though their overseas openers departed inside the PowerPlay. However, a lot of damage had already been caused by then as the Giants raced to 56 for 2 after six overs. Beth Mooney stuttered for a 12-ball 13 but Sophie Devine was at her best, hammering boundaries at will before miscuing one to fall for a 20-ball 38.
Sophie Devine briefly wrested the initiative in the powerplay, taking down Deepti Sharma in the fourth over, but a double-strike kept Giants in check. Beth Mooney was undone by a Sophie Ecclestone arm-ball in the fifth over, while Devine holed out to deep midwicket off Shikha Pandey for a 20-ball 38 in the sixth.
While the Warriorz would have hoped for some respite after those two wickets, Giants took complete control of the contest. Anushka Sharma, making an impression on her WPL debut, joined forces with Gardner to add 103 for the third wicket to put the bowling attack under a lot of pressure. Anushka was the one who took the initiative early by finding a few boundaries with Gardner biding her time, batting on 18 off 19 at one point.
Gardner, the Giants captain, and Anushka Sharma, the Madhya Pradesh batter making her WPL debut, continued the surge, adding 103 for the third wicket in just 10.3 overs. Anushka’s nimble and assured strokeplay against spin was particularly impressive. She exhibited this best when she danced down the track and got leg-side of the ball before lofting Ecclestone inside-out between cover and point for four. Gardner, initially measured, shifted gears decisively in the 13th over, carving Kranti Gaud for three boundaries.
She turned up the heat further, launching three sixes, off Asha and Ecclestone, across the 14th and 15th overs. Giants plundered 49 runs from overs 13 to 15, a burst that carried Gardner to her half-century off just 30 balls.
However, the release came in the 13th over for the Australian when she punished Kranti Gaud for three fours in a single over after which she took charge. She smashed consecutive sixes in the very next over before taking on Sophie Ecclestone for another boundary and a six to bring up a stunning fifty.
Deandra Dottin finally put an end to the century partnership which was then immediately followed by Ecclestone breaching Gardner’s defence but Georgia Wareham and Bharti Fulmali combined to clear the ropes five times in the last two overs to power the total beyond 200.
Georgia Wareham walked in halfway through the 17th over, and had stamped her mark on the innings by the end of Giants’ innings. The highlight was her onslaught against Deandra Dottin, the former Giants allrounder, hitting for three sixes in the 19th over. Georgia Wareham could have been dismissed on 13, though, had Gaud held on to a simple chance at cover point in the same over. Bharti Fulmali then showcased her hitting prowess, muscling Deepti for two sixes in the final over to take Giants past 200.
Phoebe Litchfield’s valiant half century in vain as as Georgia Wareham’s bowling restricts UP Warriorz to 197 for 8 securing a 10 runs win for GG
Georgia Wareham then starred with the ball as well as she turned the game around in the space of three deliveries just when the Warrirorz appeared to be gaining momentum. Kiran Navgire was cleaned up in the very first over by Renuka Singh Thakur but Litchfield was in a destructive mood right from the outset. Meg Lanning, leading her new team, struck a few boundaries to get going but was also pegged back with a lot of dot balls that ensured the Warriorz didn’t run away in the PowerPlay.
Litchfield then pushed the ante by taking on Devine before Georgia Wareham’s double wicket over that saw her send back Lanning and Harleen Deol to put the Giants on top again. Things went from bad to worse when a leading edge from Deepti Sharma saw her chip one back to Renuka in tame fashion in the very next over as the batting side went from 73 for 1 to 74 for 4.
Warriorz lost Kiran Navgire in the first over, to Renuka Singh, but Litchfield looked in sparkling form from the outset. Her exhilarating strokeplay somewhat consigned Meg Lanning to the background for much of their 70-run second-wicket stand before the floodgates opened, with Warriorz losing three wickets in four deliveries to go into a full-blown collapse.
Undeterred, Litchfield continued to bat in positive fashion and found an ideal partner in the form of Shweta Sehrawat who hit two sixes and a four off her first six deliveries. Litchfield at the other end managed to bring up a 24-ball fifty and then took on Wareham for back-to-back sixes as the momentum slowly swung again.
At 74 for 4, Warriorz held back Dottin and promoted their lone retention, Shweta Sehrawat. And she made everyone go wow first ball, launching Renuka down the ground for six. If that was audacious, two consecutive sixes off Gardner in the following over were truly exhilarating.
The strategic timeout finally brought some relief for the bowling side as Rajeshwari Gayakwad redeemed herself despite being smashed for a six by bagging the key wicket of Sehrawat. At that point, the Warriorz had their task cut out, needing 65 from the final five overs with a well-set Litchfield and Deandra Dottin out in the middle.
Litchfield’s progress to her half-century in 29 balls was no less entertaining. She swept, reverse-swept, paddled, and moved across the stumps to mow length deliveries into the leg side. Warriorz’s hopes rose through the course of a fifth-wicket stand of 69, but Litchfield’s dismissal, coming soon after that of Sehrawat who was bowled missing a slog-sweep off Rajeshwari Gayakwad, proved to be the clincher.
However, their hopes were crushed in an instant when Litchfield found the fielder at the deep, followed by a tight over from Georgia Wareham to round off her spell. Dottin then clubbed Gardner for a six, only to perish next ball. Even though Asha Sobhana entertained slight hopes at the start of the penultimate over, the Giants managed to secure the win in the end. Asha’s cameo from there on merely reduced the margin of defeat.
Presentations and Road Ahead
Meg Lanning the losing UP Warriorz skipper said : I thought it was a good game with plenty of positives for us. Of course, we would have loved to start with a win, but we just couldn’t quite put it together for long enough. Still, it was nice to get the first game out of the way and there’s a lot we can take forward into the next one. I thought the Giants batted extremely well and put us under pressure.
We probably didn’t execute as well as we would have liked, little bit on two sides of the wicket, it was a tough wicket to bowl on and good for batting, you always have things to improve on every game and we have a few before our next game.
That is the good thing with our bowling line-up – everyone can bowl at any time, she (Ecclestone) knocks her game pretty well and nice to play with her this time, we have played a lot against each other. Now it’s about taking those learnings and enjoying the next challenge.
Ashleigh Gardner the winning GG skipper said : It was a fantastic game for everyone who came out to watch, and it showed just how high-scoring this ground can be. By around the 11-over mark, I felt we probably needed close to 200. Phoebe hit the ball beautifully from ball one, and we knew that would be a competitive target.
We bowled well in patches and there are plenty of learnings with both bat and ball, but I thought our fielding was excellent and that might have made the difference in the end. I’m really proud of how we started. She’s (Anushka) such a special player.
I’d only seen her bat in the nets before, so to spend time out in the middle with her was really pleasing. She keeps the game simple but also opens up different areas of the ground, and for someone so young to be brave enough to do that is impressive. We were definitely searching for ways to stop her (Litchfield).
Georgia bowled really well, and knowing the depth in our bowling attack, I can throw the ball to anyone with confidence. I’ve played a lot of cricket with and against Phoebe, so I know how dangerous she is.
She hits all around the ground, which makes setting fields tough, but we managed to slow her down a bit and then get the wicket. That really swung the momentum back our way. We knew they were never completely out of it, so we had to keep taking wickets – and thankfully we did enough to get the win.
Goergia Wareham Player of the Match for her all round brilliance 27 runs with the bat and 2 wickets with the ball said : These tournaments are all about momentum. To get a win straightaway and have everyone chip in across all aspects of the game is really pleasing.
It was a pretty flat wicket, so all the bowlers did a great job to keep taking wickets at regular intervals. I was just happy to contribute and get a couple when the opportunity came. Yeah, definitely (knew it was pad first in Lanning’s wicket), Moons knew it as well, but Meg is always a big one to get at that stage of the game, so that was really pleasing.
Skipper Ashleigh Gardner hit a sparkling half-century (65) and Georgia Wareham (27* off 10 and 2 for 30) delivered with both bat and ball as Gujarat Giants made a winning start to WPL 2026. Phoebe Litchfield (78 off 40) for UP Warriorz put on a show in the run chase but the Giants managed to hold out for a narrow victory by 10 runs.
Georgia Wareham towered over the rest with an impressive all-round show to lead Gujarat Giants to an impressive opening-match win over UP Warriorz.
Georgia Wareham’s unbeaten 10-ball 27 gave Giants the finishing kick they needed to nudge past 200, after a half-century from Ashleigh Gardner had laid the perfect platform. Then Georgia Wareham picked up the massive wickets of Meg Lanning and Harleen Deol to scupper Warriorz’s chase.
Phoebe Litchfield’s 40-ball 78 kept Warriorz in the hunt, but her dismissal proved decisive. Warriorz, however, managed to stem some net-run-rate damage courtesy a neat cameo from Asha Sobhana.
A big effort with the bat by the UP Warriorz, but Gujarat Giants were always ahead of the game. They needed a massive batting powerplay, but they lost Kiran Navgire early and then Meg Lanning couldn’t quite find the boundaries. Phoebe Litchfield, the Australian sensation, played an absolute gem and kept her team in the hunt, but wickets kept tumbling at the other end.
Shwetha Sehrawat chipped in with a 17-ball 25, but with the asking rate going north, they had to take the risks and fell doing so. A brisk cameo in the end by Asha Sobhana, but it only served to reduce the deficit. Both teams will take positives, but it’s the Giants who’ll take the points from today’s game.
404 runs on a batting wicket to start Day 2 of the tournament. The Giants have some serious firepower in that batting line-up and they’ve started with all guns blazing. On the other hand, the Warriorz would reckon that it was a one-off day and they’ll be roaring to get back to winning ways.
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