WPL 2025: Gardner, Mishra take Gujarat Giants to win over UP Warriorz – Talking Points

The Gujarat Giants got their 2025 Women's Premier League campaign back on track as they got the better of UP Warriorz by six wickets at the Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara on Sunday.

The Giants rode on the back of a second consecutive half-century by skipper Ashleigh Gardner as they romped home with two overs to spare in the contest.

Earlier, the Warriorz struggled with bat in hand as they posted 143/9 in their 20 overs after being asked to bat first.

Here are the talking points from the match:

Gardner rescues Giants

The Gujarat Giants were in deep trouble in their quest, reduced to 2/2 inside two overs in their chase.

It was then that Gardner, much like their first match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Friday, intervened. She stitched a 55-run partnership for the third wicket with opener Laura Wolvaardt, who scored 22 off 24.

Gardner played a captain's knock, reaching the half-century mark off just 28 deliveries with five boundaries and three sixes.

It marked the fourth half-century for by Gardner for the Giants – the joint highest for the franchise along with Beth Mooney – in WPL.

Though she was prized out by Tahlia McGrath soon after, the Australian all-rounder had already pulled Giants out of trouble and laid the foundation for their win.

Harleen Deol (34*) and Deandra Dottin (33*) provided the finishing touch for the Giants with an unbeaten 58-run partnership to close off the match. The latter was in the zone, striking three boundaries and two sixes in her 18-ball knock.

Ecclestone shines

Sophie Ecclestone did majority of the damage to the Giants in their chase. She struck to remove Dayalan Hemalatha for a duck in second over before returning to prize out Wolvaardt as well to pull the Warriorz back in the match following a half-century partnership for the third wicket.

The left-arm spinner finished with figures of 2-16 in her four overs and until she finished her quota of overs, the Warriorz were always in the hunt.

Grace Harris also did her job, bowling the first over of the chase, to scalp Mooney, who had scored a half-century in the previous match, for a golden duck.

Priya stuns Warriorz

Earlier in the first innings, it was the 20-year-old Priya Mishra who stole the limelight. The leg spinner finished with figures of 3-25 in her four overs.

The Warriorz were coasting along at 74/2 in the 11th over, when Mishra struck twice within a span of three deliveries.

She first got the better of McGrath with a skidder before cleaning up Harris with a googly. With their two star batters back in the dug out cheaply, the Warriorz never recovered.

Captain Deepti Sharma top-scored for UP Warriorz with 39 off 27 deliveries, a knock which included six boundaries. Even Sharma eventually fell prey to Mishra.

The Warriorz required a late cameo from pacer Saima Thakor (15*) to take themselves to a respectable total.

Gardner (2-39) and Dottin (2-34) also impressed with the ball for Giants.

'20-30 runs short'

Dottin, who played a crucial role for Gujarat Giants to get their first win of the season, asserted that the Warriorz were at least 20 to 30 runs short of the par score on this ground.

"I just think they were 20-30 runs short and we were confident of chasing it down," she said. "It was just a matter of watching the ball and hitting it well."