UP Warriorz pulled off a stunning win by 3 wickets with one ball remaining over Gujarat Giants to march into the playoffs . For UP , Grace Harris McGrath and Ecclestone were outstanding . It also ensured that both RCB and Gujarat Giants are out of WPL 2023.
Batting first , Gujarat Giants were off to a flyer as Dunkley (23) and Wolvaardt (17) scored 40 in 4 overs before Anjali bowled Wolvardt . Then in a Gayakwad over both Dunkley and Harleen (4) were caught on the offside and UP Warriorz were back in the hunt . However Dayalan Hemlata and Ash Gardner got into an explosive 93 run stand in just 10 overs . Hemlata played a breathtaking knock of 57 off 33 balls and played several glorious lofted shots off the spinners . Similarly Gardner played a dazzling 60 off 39 balls to put Gujarat in front . Under 19 world cupper Parshavi Chopra broke the stand by getting both the batters out . Finally Gujarat Giants reached a formidable score of 178/6 . For UP , Parshavi Chopra was the best bowler getting 2/29 while Gayakwad took 2/39 & Ecclestone took 1/27 . Deepti Sharma had a disappointing spell of 49 runs given in 4 overs and no wickets .
In reply the UP Warriorz started poorly with Healy (12) and Vaidya (7) losing wickets to spinners and Navgire (4) dismissed by Kim Garth . Tahlia McGrath and Grace Harris had a productive stand of 78 in 9 overs as both started to play a flurry of shots all around the ground before McGrath (57) was caught at the boundary off Gardner .
Deepti (6) was out cheaply to Rana but Harris and Ecclestone got into a good stand of 42 runs in 4 overs as Harris started to shift gears ominously for Gujarat . She took apart Harleen and looked poised to finish the game with big hits when she went for one shot too many off Kim Garth and was dismissed for a dazzling knock of 72 off 41 .
Harris’ dismissal brought Gujarat back into the game as UP needed 7 runs in 6 balls . After a few scampered singles and a runout, Ecclestone swept Rana’s 5th delivery for a 4 to win a thriller by 3 wickets with one ball to go .
Harris for her match winning knock was the player of the match .