Mumbai Indians (MI) continued their dominance over Gujarat Giants (GG) and took another step towards making a direct entry into the final of WPL 2025 with a nine-run win in their penultimate league match. The sparse home crowd was treated to a couple of stroke-filled knocks – MI captain Harmanpreet Kaur hit her third half-century in four outings at the Brabourne Stadium while Bharti Fulmali smashed her maiden WPL fifty, off just 22 balls, to give MI a mighty scare.

In the first match in Mumbai this season, Nat Sciver-Brunt and Amanjot Kaur played support acts to their captain as MI posted 179 for 6. GG were kept on a tight leash in reply, with the lack of dew doing them no favours. Amelia Kerr and Shabnum Ismail shared five wickets – the latter delivering the key blows of Ashleigh Gardner and Phoebe Litchfield – as GG were restricted to 170 for 9. It was just the third time in 19 games this season that a team successfully defended a target. It was MI’s sixth win in six matches against GG in the WPL.

The win took MI to ten points, on par with Delhi Capitals, with a net run rate of 0.298 (just below DC’s 0.396) and a game to spare. They play Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Tuesday in under 24 hours to round off the league stage. MI need to win that match to top the table and get a direct entry into the final, while the team that finishes second will play GG in the eliminator.

Soon after GG fell just short, coach Michael Klinger said at the press conference that they tried to chase the target down in 18 overs, which would have taken them to the top of the table.

GG were 70 for 5 in the 11th over and Deandra Dottin had survived a dropped chance just before Fulmali walked out. She got to her task by taking Sciver-Brunt for three fours in an over – one square through the off side, one over cover and then through square leg. It is not often that a batter outshines Dottin and causes headache to the opposition but such was Fulmali’s assault. Soon Kerr bowled Dottin to leave GG’s equation down to 88 off 41.

Fulmali then walloped Kerr over long-on and did the same to Amanjot in the next over. Overall, she scored 24 off the nine balls she faced of Kerr, including a sequence of 6, 6, 4 which helped her to a 22-ball fifty before she fell in the same over. That left GG needing 38 off the 18, which soon became 23 off 12 after Simran Shaikh, in for Dayalan Hemalatha, and Tanuja Kanwar hit Matthews for 15. But MI held their nerves despite a frenetic finish to register their fifth win in seven matches.

For the second game in a row, MI opened the batting with Kerr after being inserted. She faced the left-arm spin of Kanwar for starters before clipping Kashvee Gautam for a four. But she found it tough to rotate strike and was run-out after pushing one straight to Gardner at mid-on and setting off.

It was Matthews and Sciver-Brunt who provided MI the momentum in the powerplay. They exploited the short boundary – the square boundaries measured 58m and 52m – by moving around the crease. Matthews pulled her West Indies team-mate Dottin over deep square leg for a six in the opening over before aerially sweeping Kanwar in the same region for another. Sciver-Brunt also swept Kanwar through short fine leg as MI were 44 for 1 after six overs.

Legspinner Priya Mishra had Matthews caught behind soon after the powerplay. Like she has been doing this season, Harmanpreet started off swiftly – she reversed Mishra through short third with the back of her bat and then attacked Meghna Singh in the only over she bowled. MI’s run rate hovered in the early sevens and she, in the company of Sciver-Brunt, ensured it never dipped. They added 59 off 40 before Gardner broke through.

That brought Amanjot to the crease at No. 5 for only the second time in the WPL. She drove Dottin through the covers and then meted out special treatment to Gautam, with whom she has trained with for over a decade now, hitting her for a sequence of 4, 4, 6 to help MI take 15 off the 17th over. Gautam did have the last laugh by having Amanjot caught at long-on for a 15-ball 27 to end the 19-ball 33-run stand. Harmanpreet then completed her half-century off just 31 balls as MI scored 55 off the last four overs, the exact equation GG needed in the chase.

Having benched the misfiring Hemalatha, GG opted to use Gautam as the opener alongside Beth Mooney, who popped a catch to cover on the first ball of Matthews’ spell. While Gautam does possess the ability to hit big shots down the order, she was like a deer caught in headlights against the high-pace and swing of Ismail. Gautam was on 9 off 12 balls with nine dots at the end of the fifth over when GG were 34 for 1. She just managed to get away from a 120kph short ball Ismail hurled at her. Gautam fell in the last over of the powerplay, stumped off Sanskriti Gupta’s offspin.

Two balls later, Ismail had Gardner caught low at slip for a two-ball duck, that was a body blow for GG. While Harleen Deol hit five fours against spin – three of them in successive balls off Matthews – she missed a googly from Kerr to be trapped lbw. GG could have lost steam and finished much lower than what they did, if not for Fulmali.

Brief scores:
Mumbai Indians Women 179 for 6 in 20 overs (Harmanpreet  Kaur 54, Nat Sciver-Brunt 38, Hayley Mathews 27, Amanjot Kaur 27, Sajeevan Sanjana 11*, Yastika Bhatia 13: Tanuja Kanwar 1-41, Kashvee Gautam 1-32, Priya Mishra 1-23, Ashleigh Gardner 1-27) beat Gujarat Giants Women 170 in 20 overs  (Bharti Fulmali 61, Kashvee Gautam 10, Harleen Deol 24, Phoebe Litchfield 22, Deandra Dottin 10,  Simran Saikh 18, Tanuja Kanwar 10; Amelia Kerr 3-34, Shabnim Ismail 2-17, Hayley Matthews 3-38, Sanskriti Gupta 1-18) by nine runs

[Cricinfo]