Gardner and Wareham lead Giants to opening-game victory

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.

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 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.

Devine's early salvo
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.

Gardner, Anushka lift off
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.

Wareham's explosive finish
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.

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.

From cruise control to collapse
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.

Sehrawat, Litchfield keep Warriorz's hopes up
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.

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.

Asha's cameo from there on merely reduced the margin of defeat.