Kranti Goud: From tennis ball to UP Warriorz's match winner

As the UP Warriorz registered their first win of the 2025 Women's Premier League with a win over the Delhi Capitals, they found an unlikely hero in Kranti Goud.

Goud, 21, had made her WPL debut earlier this season. In the two matches prior to this, she had gone wicketless.

But all that changed, on Saturday, against the Capitals at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium – a ground considered to be batters paradise.

Goud ran through the Capitals batting lineup with her fiery pace. She troubled some of the best batters in the world to finish with figures of 4/25 in her four overs.

Goud's wickets in the evening included the likes of Australian great Meg Lanning, the Capitals top-scorer Jemimah Rodrigues, swashbuckling opener Shafali Verma, and all-rounder Jess Jonassen, who had taken a four-wicket haul herself earlier in the match.

Though it was Goud's first performance of note in the Women's Premier League, she is no stranger to such feats in the Indian domestic circuit.

Goud had, in fact, recorded an identical bowling figure of 4/25 in the Senior Women's One Day Trophy final in December last year. This included the wicket of India international Richa Ghosh as she led Madhya Pradesh to their first ever title.

Early days

Hailing from Bundelkhand in Madhya Pradesh, Goud's tryst in the sport started with a tennis ball.

However, unlike majority of the young kids in the country who first pick up the bat, Goud started with the ball. Now an all-rounder, who can wield her willow lower down the order, batting was something she picked up later on.

Fast bowling was what caught her fancy at first.

"As I started playing with the tennis ball, I saw that everyone just ran in and bowled medium pace. I did not even know spin bowlers existed," Goud had told Espn Cricinfo.

The fact that her older brother – she is the youngest of six siblings – was a medium pacer himself further helped hone Goud's interest.

Goud was 14 when she first bowled with a leather ball. It happened by chance.

She was loitering around a field with a stick in her hand back when she was asked if she wanted to join in an ongoing match. Having only played with tennis ball until now, Goud jumped on the opportunity.

She ended up winning Player of the Match for her contributions.

Goud then travelled to another match around 70km away from her village, where she was spotted by Rajiv Bilthre, who runs the Sai Cricket Academy.

Bilthre took Goud under her wings and she has not looked back since.

A young girl playing cricket did raise eyebrows in her village but Goud found the required support in her family and her cricket loving eldest brother.

She has enjoyed a rapid rise through the ranks and had served as a net bowler for Mumbai Indians in the previous edition of the Women's Premier League.

Goud was roped in for Rs 10 lakh by the UP Warriorz ahead of the 2025 WPL and she has started to repay their faith with match winning performances.