All-round Nat Sciver-Brunt stars in MI’s emphatic win over UPW

Led by Nat Sciver-Brunt’s all-round performance (45 1and1 2-14), Mumbai Indians registered an emphatic 42-run win over UP Warriorz at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Thursday to move to the second spot on the WPL 2024 points table. They won their fourth game of the year. Conversely, UPW’s fourth loss of the season cost them their chances of qualifying directly for the final and threw their campaign into disarray.
UPW make early inroads
Mumbai Indians’ decision to bat first didn’t get them early rewards as Chamari Athapaththu dismissed both the openers cheaply, and in the company of Grace Harris, kept the run-flow in check in the powerplay. The defending champions made only 26 for 2 in the first five overs.
Sciver-Brunt revives MI
Rajeshwari Gaekwad struggled with her lines and lengths and proved expensive on the day. She was put away for boundaries off the first two balls as Sciver-Brunt revived MI’s innings in the company of Harmanpreet Kaur. The latter struggled to find momentum in her innings, but stuck along with the vice captain as they added 59 runs in 46 balls., with Harmanpreet going at less than run-a-ball.
Gayakwad retaliated by removing Sciver-Brunt using an arm ball in her subsequent over, but Harmanpreet launched an assault on the spinner and slogswept her for a six and a boundary before Harmanpreet emerged victorious. Saima Thakor, who bowled only two overs, knocked over Harmanpreet and Deepti Sharma soon had Amanjot Kaur caught at deep square leg to reduce MI to 117 for 5 in the 16th over.
Kerr, Sajana provide the late flourish
Even as MI didn’t get the kind of late flourish they would’ve wanted, especially with Sajana failing to get going till the last over, but a couple of dropped catches of Kerr proved handy as they managed to add 38 runs in the last four overs, before Kerr was run out off the last ball while attempting a non-existent two.
UPW’s top order woes continue
Shabnim Ismail, who had missed MI’s previous game against her former team, was breathing fire with some exceptional bowling. Not only were Alyssa Healy and Kiran Navgire struggling to put her away, but she even had the former’s stumps knocked over on a 9-ball 3.
It was a day when Mumbai Indians kept targeting the stumps and found ample success. It began in the second over itself, when Saika Ishaque cleaned up Navgire. Chamari Athapaththu was undone by the bounce and slow pace of the wicket, top edging a slash to the cover fielder off Hayley Matthews. So hard the MI bowlers were to put away early on Grace Harris took 15 balls to get off the mark, and MI crawled to 18 for 3 in the first seven overs of the chase.
No revival for UPW
Grace Harris eventually hit a six long on the board. However, that was only one out of her five scoring shots in the 23-ball stay. She was walking off once when she was deemed out LBW without contesting the umpire’s decision. Deepti Sharma intervened and made her change her mind, taking the DRS and altering the umpire’s decision. It had been of very little value. The last of her scoring shots was also a six off Ishaque, but an attempt to repeat it proved fatal as the left-armer bowled slightly flatter and faster and shattered her stumps. With Harris’s dismissal in the 10th over, with the required rate hovering around 12-an-over, the contest was almost dusted.
Deepti Sharma went on to score an unbeaten 36-ball 53 with a last-ball six, but the knock in no way threatened MI’s total. Her explosion occurred too late in the innings for a mathematical chance of a win to ignite. Despite a dropped catch by Harmanpreet, UPW batters just couldn’t provide support. Pooja Vastrakar cleaned up Shweta Sehrawat and Sciver-Brunt bowled Poonam Khenmar to nip the challenge in the bud.
Ishaque bagged three wickets, Sciver-Brunt returned two as UPW were restricted to 118 for 9.
Brief Scores: Mumbai Indians 160/6 in 20 overs (Nat Sciver-Brunt 45, Amelia Kerr 39; Chamari Athapaththu 2-29) beat UP Warriorz 118/9 in 20 overs (Deepti Sharma 53*, Shweta Sehrawat 17; Saika Ishaque 3-27, Nat Sciver-Brunt 2-14) by 42 runs