UP Warrioz's batting woes persist with time running out

Meg Lanning, Phoebe Litchfield, Chloe Tryon, Kiran Navgire, Deepti Sharma and Sophie Ecclestone. Despite the wealth of international experience, muscle and T20 expertise among those players, the UP Warriorz (UPW) line-up managed just one six in their below-par total of 154 against Delhi Capitals (DC), slumping to their third successive loss to start WPL 2026.

UPW are not only running out of time in the playoff race but are once again plagued by batting woes. It began in their second game of the season when they promoted Harleen Deol to open and pushed the hard-hitting Navgire down the order - a tactic that backfired, as head coach Abhishek Nayar admitted minutes after their nine-wicket loss, in which they managed just 143. After two defeats on the trot, UPW quickly reverted to their original opening pair of Lanning and Navgire, with Litchfield at No. 3 and Deol at No. 4. But their batting line-up flattered to deceive yet again, this time against DC. Looking set for a total well in excess of 180 in the second half of the innings, they retired out a slowing Deol on 47 off 36 in search of quick runs, only to witness a horror collapse of 6 for 20.

UPW's primary issue across their first three WPL seasons has been an over-reliance on overseas players to post big totals and clear the boundaries, barring Deepti's efforts in the 2025 campaign. Three games into the 2026 season under a new coach and after a mega auction, they have been unable to plug that hole.

Navgire's dismissal was the first ominous sign on Wednesday. She went for two wild swings in her first three balls - beaten on the third - and was sent back for a duck, following scores of 5 and 1 in the opening two games.

"Kiran hasn't clicked yet for us. But one thing about her is she's not going to eat up balls, is she?" UPW mentor Lisa Sthalekar said at the press conference. "She's willing to take the bowlers on. And we're just hoping that the work that she's been doing prior to this tournament, and then also in the lead-up to these matches and the plans that she's coming with, talking to the coaching staff, that she's able to get, I guess from our point of view, one away so that she goes, 'okay, I can do this'. Because you guys would have seen how destructive she can be. So she's a real X-factor."

Lanning and Litchfield provided a powerplay of 47, before Deol - their biggest Indian frontline batter - walked in. She found the boundaries regularly, especially with her sweeps and cuts, and lifted the run rate from under eight to over nine an over as Lanning brought up her tenth WPL half-century.

But when UPW were on course for 200 - as per ESPNcricinfo's forecaster - after 12 overs, DC countered by turning to the golden arm of Shafali Verma. Varying her pace smartly, Shafali sucked the momentum out of the innings. A well-set Deol managed just eight runs off Shafali's 11 balls, and as the death overs approached, she struggled to generate power or take the aerial route. With DC's spinners extracting turn from a used pitch at the DY Patil Stadium, Deol, Lanning and Shweta Sehrawat all found it hard to clear the ropes.

Deol slowed down to the extent that UPW decided to retire her out. A batter with just one six in a 20-innings T20I career was unlikely to provide the firepower they desperately needed from an Indian name in the middle order. Even in Indian domestic cricket, where bowling standards rarely match those of the WPL, Deol hit only four sixes across 14 matches in the 2024-25 season while facing 474 balls.

With 18 balls remaining, UPW called Deol back, hoping Tryon, Ecclestone and Deepti could replicate what Bharti Fulmali had done for Gujarat Giants, who retired out a struggling Ayushi Soni the previous night. Instead, UPW were barely able to unleash any attacking strokes; even catches taken in the deep were rarely middled. UPW attempted just 15 attacking shots in the final six overs, and only 11 in the last five, according to ESPNcricinfo's logs.

For this match, UPW left out the dangerous Deandra Dottin to hand a WPL debut to Tryon, who lasted just three balls before holing out while trying to shovel a delivery over deep midwicket from well outside off. Ecclestone failed to pick Marizanne Kapp's scrambled seam and was trapped lbw for 3 off 5. Sehrawat was beaten for pace when Shafali darted one in at close to 97 kmph, ending on 11 off 12. Deepti then swiped tamely to long-on, where the catch was taken comfortably inside the boundary.

"I think we were probably about two-thirds right from a batting point of view," Sthalekar said. "It was the last bit; I mean, you lose 6 for 24 [20] at the back end, I don't think you're going to win many games of cricket, to be fair."

No team in the first three years of the WPL has made the playoffs after starting with two losses, and UPW have now suffered three. It is incumbent upon them to revive a sinking campaign before missing out on qualification for the third year in a row. That their bowlers took a modest chase down to the final ball should not mask deeper issues that begin right at the top. And they have less than 24 hours to fix them as they meet Mumbai Indians on Thursday.