Gardner carried on from where she left off, scoring yet another crucial fifty to lift Giants from 2 for 2. After her unbeaten 79 in the opener against RCB, Gardner came in to bat as early as the second over after Giants lost Beth Mooney and D Hemalatha early. She got going by scoring back-to-back fours off the debutant fast bowling-allrounder Kranti Goud in the third over.

She was particularly brutal against Saima Thakor, who conceded 20 runs in the fifth over. Two of the three sixes of the over were hit by Gardner, one over long-on and another over deep midwicket. She used her feet well to charge down the ground when necessary and converted full tosses into fours or sixes. With Laura Wolvaardt, she stitched a crucial 55-run stand for the third wicket.

She brought up her fifty off 28 balls, with a humongous six over deep square leg off Alana King after flicking away the previous ball to deep backward square leg for four. Overall, she hit five fours and three sixes.

With 131 runs in two matches at an impressive strike rate of 195.52, Gardner is the leading run-scorer of the tournament as of now.

After Tahlia McGrath dismissed Gardner in the 12th over, Giants needed 58 off 49 balls. But Dottin came in and swung her bat straightaway over midwicket to collect her first six, off King. Putting her power game to use, she punished McGrath for two more fours in the next over and released pressure off Giants.

The dew factor and a few dropped catches didn’t help Warriorz either as Deol also played the role of anchor to keep the chase at a healthy run-rate. Deol made an unbeaten 34 off 30 balls while Dottin hit a quickfire 33 that included three fours and two sixes.

Earlier, with the ball, Dottin struck in the second over, dismissing Kiran Navgire with an inswinger and then knocked off Uma Chetry with a short ball in the tenth over when Warriorz were just trying to steady the ship after a few early wickets.

Warriorz were 73 for 3 after 10 overs, and with McGrath and Grace Harris yet to come, they would have hoped for a lift-off. But Mishra landed a big blow by removing both the Australians in the span of three deliveries. For McGrath, she bowled a googly that skidded on in line of middle and off and scrapped past the batter’s inside edge and hit the pad first, and then off the bat and onto the pads. McGrath reviewed the lbw decision but it was struck down.

A ball later, Mishra bowled another googly, a flighted delivery on off, and Harris went for a big slog across the line only to be beaten on the inside edge as the ball crashed onto the stumps. Mishra let out a loud roar after producing a statement performance.

After being asked to bat, Warriorz decided to open with Kiran Navgire and Vrinda Dinesh, who had suffered a shoulder injury last season after playing four matches. But neither of them made an impact with Dottin and Gardner striking inside the powerplay.

Uma Chetry, at No.3, also toiled to middle a lot of deliveries but utilised her strong bottom hand to smash four boundaries in her 27-ball 24. With Deepti at the other end, the duo produced a 51-run partnership to rescue Warriorz from early jitters. Deepti, who had hit an unbeaten 88 against Giants last year while batting at No.4 the only other time before Sunday, was the positive of the lot and smashed 39 off 27. She used her trademark sweep shots to good effect and also kept the scorecard ticking in the middle overs with pull shots and punches off the backfoot. Eventually, Deepti was also dismissed by Mishra in the 15th over.

Despite the late flourish at the end of the innings thanks to Thakor and King, Warriorz finished with an under-par total.

Wolvaardt shimmied down and smashed one down the ground for four after missing Ecclestone’s first ball of the fourth over. Four dot balls followed. Eventually, Wolvaardt fell to Ecclestone for 22 off 24 balls. In a moment of indecision that left her neither playing forward nor back, she was beaten on pace in the ninth over. Overall, Wolvaardt scored six runs off Ecclestone’s ten balls with only three scoring shots in it. Ecclestone finished with figures of 2 for 16 but that wasn’t enough for Warriorz.

Brief scores:
Gujarat Giants Women 144 for 4 in 18 overs (Ashleigh Gardner 52, Laura Wolvaardt 22, Harleen Deol 34*, Deandra Dottin 33*; Sophie  Ecclestone 2-16, Grace Harris 1-01, Tahlia McGrath 1-21) beat UP Warriorz Women 143 for 9 in 20 overs (Deepti Sharma 39,Uma Chetry 24, Alana King 19*;  Priya Mishra 3-25, Deandra Dottin 2-34, Ashleigh Gardner 2-3, Kashvee Gautam 1-15) by six wickets

[Cricinfo]