On Tuesday, February 18, the Gujarat Giants and Mumbai Indians faced off in Match 5 of the Women’s Premier League 2025 at the Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara. MI-W chose to field first after winning the toss.
GJ-W had a dismal start, finishing with 28/4 in six overs after continuing to lose wickets during the powerplay. They were bowled out for 120 in their 20 overs, therefore the innings’ narrative remained mostly same. Gujarat’s top performers were Harleen Deol (32 off 31) and Kashvee Gautam (20 off 15). With statistics of 3/16 in her four overs, Hayley Matthews was the most impressive bowler for Mumbai.
MI-W scored 37/1 near the end of the powerplay after getting off to a steady start. Almost everyone made a valuable contribution to the partnerships, helping Nat Sciver-Brunt, who completed the innings with 57 runs off of 39 balls. With 23 balls remaining and five wickets in hand, Mumbai ultimately prevailed easily.
Talking points from WPL 2025’s fifth match:
1. Gujarat Giants top order is dominated by Mumbai bowlers
After dismissing the top four in the powerplay itself, the Mumbai bowlers grabbed control of the game. The batters were unable to escape thanks to bowling that was tactically sound. Gujarat had to rebuild the innings and establish a goal that could be defended.
2. Matthews’ performance that won the game
In the first innings, West Indian great Hayley Matthews bowled brilliantly, taking important wickets and ended with an impressive 3/16 in four overs. She made a significant contribution of 17 runs whilst batting. She received the Player of the Match award for her overall effort.
3. Mumbai’s batting stalwart, Sciver-Brunt
Nat Sciver-Brunt had a great innings with 59 runs off 39 balls and 11 fours. She kept Mumbai from getting lost at any point during the second innings by staying at the crease for nearly the whole duration. Her background was helpful in preventing a possible loss.
Who Said What?
Losing skipper, Ashleigh Gardner
We lost wickets in clumps and we put a lot of onus on the top order to score a lot of runs and it wasn’t to be today. We could not adjust fast enough when we batted and Shabnim bowled really quick there it seemed a bit faster in the first 10 overs and I don’t think we adjusted overly fast and they bowled well. We have got a nice little break, a week, got time to reset and there are lot of positives to take from these three games and the younger players are shining which is so important to us. The younger players love stepping into the field and bowling and you could see the passion in the way they celebrate the wickets as well. Hopefully we can put the perfect game going forward.
Winning skipper, Harmanpreet Kaur
Whatever we talked about in the team meetings, we executed. Really happy everything went according to our plans. The first six overs are very important. Our bowlers did a great job. We picked the right bowlers to bowl (in the first six overs) and that gave us a stable start. (On what they need to do this season, being played across multiple venues) Be more consistent. We have a great team, a balanced side and we need to keep doing the right things again and again.
Player of the Match, Hayley Matthews
That’s just cricket sometimes (hitting a loosener straight to the fielder). Happy to get a couple away, but would’ve loved to carry the innings on for longer. The conditions suited me well. There definitely was a bit of turn for me. Just keeping the stumps in play. Obviously had the long boundary and wanted to have the batters hit to that side. The close ones always hurt the most. We got into a position in that match where we could’ve won it. At the same time, we were very hungry today to turn it around.
India
