NEWS
Follow UsAfter having chased down 161 against Mumbai Indians in 16.3 overs and 142 against Gujarat Giants in 15.4 overs, UP Warriorz’s skipper Alyssa Healy was extremely happy with the brand of cricket her team is playing in the ongoing Women’s Premier League.
On Friday (March 1), Grace Harris smoked 60* off 33 deliveries and gave UP their second win of the season. Thanks to their last two wins, the Warriorz have got their NRR up to +0.211 despite losing their second game to Delhi Capitals by a big margin.
“We have a style of play that we want to play. We don’t want to go into our shells at any point. We want to play positive and proactive cricket,” said Healy after UP’s six-wicket win.
“The way we started in that run-chase was outstanding. That’s why we have players like Grace Harries in the middle-order to get us over the line, which she did tonight, which was pretty cool.”
Healy herself slammed 33 off 21, and along with Kiran Navgire (12 off 8) and Chamari Athapaththu (17 off 11), got the required rate down to way below six by the end of 10 overs.
“Over 10 years of international experience, just believing in yourself and backing your own ability. Some days they come off, and some days they don’t,” said Healy.
“My role in the side is to get the team off to a good start whether we are batting first or chasing and the fact that we got that run-rate down to run-a-ball pretty quickly was the job done.”
Earlier in the first innings, UP used 19 overs of spin and never allowed Gujarat to get going. “There wasn’t too much planning. We kept one field up and wanted them to come down and hit those shots. All of their players are quite strong square of the wicket.
“We are blessed to have lots of spin options. Lots of wicket-taking options in the middle. We haven’t quite nailed the powerplay yet, but I thought all the bowlers did a fantastic job.”
Meanwhile, Gujarat’s head coach Michael Klinger feels they can still qualify for the finals despite having lost all of their three games, and also heaped heavy praise on Tanuja Kanwar. The 28-year-old has scored 32 runs across two innings at a strike rate of 139.13 and picked up five wickets at an average of 12.8.
“It’s not the start we would have liked coming into the tournament. We were pretty confident of starting well after a good training camp but that hasn’t happened,” said Klinger.
“You don’t want to come into a tournament and start with three losses. We have to deal with it. We have got five games to go and need to win at least four to try and get to the finals. We are still in it but have got some work to do.
“Tanuja has been great. She is full of energy, in the field and off the field. She is bowling beautifully and has played some nice innings for us as well. She has had a great tournament so far and is great to have around the group as well.”
