Meg Lanning and Phoebe Litchfield smashed commanding half-centuries to power UP Warriorz to a convincing 22-run victory over defending champions Mumbai Indians.Australia’s Meg Lanning and Phoebe Litchfield responded to Kiran Navgire’s early dismissal with an aggressive counterattack.
Litchfield smashed seven fours and three sixes in her 37-ball 61 before being dismissed in the 13th over, with the score at 124 for 2, while Meg Lanning scored 70 off 45 balls with 11 fours and two sixes, followed in the next over as UP Warriorz moved to 136 for 3.
During her time in the middle, Meg Lanning crossed the 11,000-run mark in T20s, thus adding another feather in her coveted hat. Earlier, during UP Warriorz’s last match, Meg Lanning crossed the 1000-run mark in WPL. She also became the third cricketer after Harmanpreet and Sciver-Brunt to reach this feat. She reached the landmark against Delhi Capitals.
Notably, Meg Lanning is the second-highest run-scorer. Sciver-Brunt leads the list with 1166 runs, followed by Lanning’s 1075. Harmanpreet (1032), Ellyse Perry (972) and Shafali Verma (887) complete the top five. In fact, Meg Lanning led Delhi Capitals to WPL finals in all the previous three seasons, but lost in all of them. Delhi Capitals released Meg Lanning last year.
Pitch Report and Toss
Pitch Report : We’re on pitch number 4. It’s a return fixture between UP Warriorz and Mumbai Indians. Dimensions first: straight down the ground is 66 metres. To my right, it’s 53 metres, and to my left, 58 metres. This is day eight here at DY Patil. We’ve used three pitches so far, and this is pitch number four. It’s been the highest-scoring pitch we’ve had so far, over 1,100 runs have been scored here, with an average first-innings total of 198.
So if you’re winning the toss, you might want to think about batting first. Today we’ll see two or three of the top run-scorers in action. That good length, top of off stump, is really important. But what I’ve noticed is how much more important spin has become as the tournament has gone on. In the first three matches, there was about 1.8 degrees of turn.
In the last three games, it’s gone up to 2.5 degrees. And Shreyanka Patil, who’ll be in action later today, picked up her first five-wicket haul last night. UP Warriorz pulled off a heist a few nights ago against the same opposition. – reckons Kate Cross and Stacy-Ann King.
Toss :
Meg Lanning’s UP Warriorz turned to pink and yellow instead of their traditional violet and yellow against Mumbai Indians during their Women’s Premier League (WPL) encounter on Saturday at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. The change in Warriorz’ jersey colour is because the franchise is promoting girl’s education, opting WPL as a platform.
“Let’s turn pink in support of girls’ education,” read one of UP Warriorz’s social media post. “Today isn’t just about a jersey. It’s about dreams that demand space, voice, and belief. PINK isn’t just a colour today, it’s a cause we wear with pride,” the franchise wrote in another post on X.
In fact, during the coin toss, UP Warriorz captain Meg Lanning handed a banner to her Mumbai Indians counterpart Harmanpreet Kaur that read “her education, our promise”.
Mumbai Indians Women skipper Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and chose to bowl first with one change in the Playing XI bringing in debutant Nalla Kranthi Reddy for Poonam Khemnar. UP Warriorz skipper Meg Lanning batting first made no changes in the Playing XI.
Half centuries from Meg Lanning and Phoebe Litchfield powers UP Warriorz to 187 for 8 in 20 overs
After a quiet eighth over bowled by Amelia Kerr, Litchfield was on 18 off 16 and needing to pick up the tempo. Next over, she square drove Amanjot Kaur for four before skipping down the track to loft her over long-off.
Meg Lanning reached her half-century off 35 balls in the next over, hammering Kerr over long-off to get there. Litchfield, whom Kerr has dismissed eight times in T20s, also lofted her over her head for a boundary as the two Australians started to pick up the pace. A quiet over followed, courtesy Sciver-Brunt, which also saw Triveni Vasisht drop Litchfield, but Litchfield and Meg Lannning both picked up a boundary each off Sanskriti Gupta.
After a watchful start – getting 17 off the first 18 balls she faced, Litchfield stepped in the middle-phase when she went after Amanjot and Kerr. She eventually fell to Amanjot in the 13th over, but not before smashing 61 off 37 – with 43 coming off the last 20 deliveries she faced. Meg Lanning fell in the next over, in a blaze of glory, having smashed three fours in a Hayley Mathews over and going for a big fourth.
In a two-over period of frenzy that followed – the 13th and 14th – UPW racked up 34 runs but lost both their set batters. Litchfield first just beat Carey running to her left at deep midwicket as she swept Amanjot for six and then brought up a 33-ball half-century with a cover drive.
When Amanjot went short, Litchfield pulled her for another boundary through midwicket. She then chipped one to cover, where she was given another life, this time by Harmanpreet Kaur. Litchfield picked up another six off long-off to make it a 20-run over before a pick-up flick found deep backward square, where Sanskriti held on this time.
Meg Lanning didn’t want to release any pressure and took on Matthews next over, putting away a couple of short balls for back-to-back fours. She swept the offspinner for another boundary before picking out deep square leg to finish on 70 off 45. MI clawed back from here to an extent with the ball, picking five wickes in the last six overs. They still conceded 49 runs there, which proved a touch too steep for their batters to surmount.
After a period of 12 balls without a boundary after Lanning’s departure, Chloe Tryon launched a six over long-off. Tryon and Harleen Deol kept the boundaries coming as they picked up 23 runs off the 17th and 18th overs.
But, MI’s star overseas allrounders then dampened the finish for UPW. First, Sciver-Brunt started the penultimate over with back-to-back wickets. Tryon sliced a full toss to cover, where Harmanpreet made amends by holding on to the catch before Shweta Sehrawat was caught behind first ball. She got a thin edge that popped up off G Kamalini’s gloves but the 17-year-old wicketkeeper did well to grab it in the second attempt.
Deol hit another boundary before missing a legbreak from Kerr in the final over to be out stumped. Kerr also had Sophie Ecclestone stumped and Deepti Sharma caught behind to give away only two runs in the final over and restrict UPW to 187 for 8.
UP Warriorz withstand Amanjot-Kerr assault to secure 2nd win in the row against MI Women by 22 runs
The victory margin – 22 runs – doesn’t exactly scream a close finish but UP Warriorz would perhaps argue it shouldn’t even have got to that after the way their bowlers started their defence of 187/8. MI were onto their fourth opening pair in five games with Hayley Mathews and S Sajana but still couldn’t add early impetus to their batting. In fact, both were sent packing in the space of four deliveries by Kranti Goud and Sophie Ecclestone.
MI came into the game with the second-worst average for the opening partnership and the worst run rate. On Saturday, they tried their fourth different combination of the season, with S Sajana partnering Matthews. Matthews started well, with three boundaries through the off side off Kranti Gaud and Shikha Pandey.
Sajana got into the action in the third over, pulling Gaud for six over midwicket before getting an outside edge for four. But, Gaud came back strong by trapping her in front to give UPW the first breakthrough.
Ecclestone then nearly had Matthews lbw, choosing not to review after the batter missed a sweep, even though it looked close. But it didn’t matter as Matthews chipped the next ball back to Ecclestone, who went on to bowl a wicket maiden. Sciver-Brunt then got a couple of boundaries off Gaud and Harmanpreet was crafty in gliding one between backward point and short third off Ecclestone, but they only managed 38 runs in the first six, continuing MI’s trend of slow starts.
Harmanpreet Kaur and Nat Sciver-Brunt tried to steady the stumbling ship, dragging the team to 38/2 in the PowerPlay. But MI lost their way in the middle, falling to 62/4 at the halfway stage. The curtains had started to roll down on MI when in the 11th over, Harmanpreet pulled a Chloe Tyron delivery straight to Ecclestone at deep mid-wicket.
Sciver-Brunt, who was looking in great touch, hit Pandey straight to Meg Lanning at cover in the first over after the powerplay as the defending champions’ job got harder. Then Deepti, who bowled a quiet first over, had Carey miscuing one down the ground and Deol took a good catch running back from mid-on.
Harmanpreet Kaur , who was struggling to get going, pulled Tryon for a six over midwicket but fell in the same over trying the same shot. Having lost half their side and needing to score at over 13 runs an over, it was effectively game over for MI.
It took a manic four-over phase for MI hopefuls to find their voice again, as Amanjot and Kerr laid into Tryon (11 runs), Asha Sobhana (8 runs), Ecclestone (14 runs), and Deepti Sharma (14 runs), dragging their team to 125/5 in 16 overs when the timeout arrived.
The ask was still steep but at 63 off 24 deliveries, the UP Warriorz were now kept on their toes. The carnage extended for two more overs as Shikha Pandey was hit for two fours in a 12-run over and Ecclestone conceded 14 more. In the penultimate over, though, Shikha ended the partnership when she took a sharp return catch off a full toss to send Amanjot back for a fighting 41 off 24. Just three runs from that over meant MI were left to chase 34 off the last six balls, which was a bridge too far even as Kerr finished undefeated on 49 off 28.
Kerr and Amanjot tried to mount a comeback, with an 83-run sixth-wicket stand that saw the latter hammer three sixes, but they could not keep up with the asking rate. Amanjot offered a return catch to Pandey in the penultimate over and MI ended up 22 runs short.
Presentations and Road Ahead
Harmanpreet Kaur the losing MI Women skipper said : We wanted to chase as a group. And I think even though we didn’t bowl well, we were still able to restrict them to less than 200 runs, which was a good thing. But I think in batting, we were not great in the powerplay. Every game, we are not coming up with a positive mindset in the powerplay. That’s something we really need to work on in the batting powerplay.
They both (Lanning and Litchfield) were batting really hard. Unfortunately, we missed a few chances in between. At this level, if you keep missing chances, the other team is going to put a lot of pressure on you. That’s exactly what happened today. As a team, we need to discuss this because we’ve been making a lot of mistakes.
I know we have a very good side, but if we come together and make fewer mistakes, that can really help us win matches. She (Kamalini) is a very important player for the team and she’s doing really great things behind the stumps. Hopefully, she’ll continue that. At the start of the tournament, Hayley was not well, and because of that we had to make a lot of changes.
But now things are quite balanced, and hopefully we’ll find the best playing XI and the best opening pair for us. They both (Amanjot and Kerr) put us in a situation where we had a little hope that we could win the match. It was good to see them batting really well, and hopefully they’ll continue. Unfortunate that we weren’t able to put a win on the board.
Meg Lanning the winning UPW skipper and Player of the match for her 70 runs said : It was a nice bounce-back for us. Losing the first three wasn’t ideal, but the group stayed upbeat. We were confident in our ability and knew we just needed to bring it for a little bit longer. It’s been really great from the group to come out and play against a really good Mumbai side and get two wins on the trot.
That gives us some really nice momentum heading into Vadodara now. We did a lot of planning. We spoke a lot about how we wanted to execute. They’ve got some pretty strong batters, so you need very clear plans against them. I think in the last two games, we’ve really nailed that planning process. Then we came out into the game very clear about what we wanted to do.
It’s been nice to have that work off the field transfer into execution on the field as well. It’s nice batting with Phoebe Litchfield. We hit to different areas of the ground and I think we complement each other really well. We’re starting to understand each other’s games too, so we can help each other out when needed. She took a lot of pressure off me with the strike rate she had.
I certainly really enjoyed it, hopefully we can have a couple more before the tournament’s out. I think we can finish off our batting innings a little bit better. I thought Mumbai bowled extremely well and took the pace right off. So it’s about adjusting to that and making sure we can finish strongly and carry momentum into the second innings. We’ve tightened up a few areas, but it’s a good thing that there’s still stuff we can improve on.
This is the first instance of Meg Lanning winning Player of the Match award across 32 WPL games. UP Warriorz’ upward curve in WPL 2026 continues to surge, once again at the cost of Mumbai Indians.
The two-time champions have now given them two Ws after the Warriors kicked off the season with a string of three Ls. Warriorz players spent much of the sultry afternoon sat on cushy chairs and watching Meg Lanning put out a batting clinic in the company of Phoebe Litchfield.
Their evening too started in fine fashion, until they were hit by a genuinely nervy period where Amanjot Kaur and Amelia Kerr threatened to pull off a late heist. A 119-run partnership between Meg Lanning and Phoebe Litchfield set up a second successive win for UP Warriorz (UPW) against Mumbai Indians (MI) in the WPL.
Put in to bat, Meg Lanning and Litchfield hit fifties to carry UPW to 187 for 8. However, a rejigged MI batting line-up faltered in the chase and succumbed to their third defeat of the season, in their last game in Navi Mumbai. UPW, who began the 2026 campaign with three defeats, became just the second team to do the league double over MI. They joined Delhi Capitals with Meg Lanning’s captaincy the link between the two.
That turned out to be a thoroughly entertaining contest. Mumbai Indians Women were on the back foot for most of the chase, but the sixth-wicket stand between Amanjot Kaur and Amelia Kerr brought the game to life. Amanjot lit up the innings with a few stunning strokes, while Kerr chipped in with a valuable contribution from the other end. At 69 for 5,
MI were staring at a heavy defeat, but that partnership ensured the damage to their net run rate was limited. Earlier in the day, half-centuries from Meg Lanning and Phoebe Litchfield powered UP Warriorz Women to a formidable 187. They may have hoped for a bigger win margin, but MI lower-order batters made sure it stayed competitive till the end. Needing 34 off the final six deliveries, MI had a mountain to climb, and they eventually fell short by 22 runs.
Despite a late counter attack by Kerr and Amanjot, UPW sealed a comfortable 22-run victory. Now, as the Navi Mumbai leg ends, with two wins in two games against the defending champions, they have resurrected their chances of being in contention for a playoffs berth heading to Vadodara.
More than the victories, it’s the confidence this new pack of players have found themselves under a new leader. Meg Lanning believes, “In the last two games, we’ve really nailed that planning process. Then we came out into the game very clear about what we wanted to do. It’s been nice to have that work off the field transfer into execution on the field as well.” UP Warriorz are still strong in the competition, with their Australian imports leading the fight.
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