Vadodara, Feb 16 (IANS) Deepti Sharma made her captaincy debut in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) as Gujarat Giants skipper Ashleigh Gardner won the toss and elected to bowl first against UP Warriorz (UPW) in the tournament’s third game at the Kotambi Stadium on Sunday.
GG had a heart-breaking six-wicket loss in the season-opener to defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and will be aiming to win over UPW to get their first points of the season. After winning the toss, Ashleigh said the playing eleven is unchanged from their defeat in Friday’s match.
“We’ll have a bowl tonight. The dew plays a part, but I also think it is a hard ground to defend on. So we need to take wickets early today. We batted really well in the first game, but today we need to be more clinical in the field and try to be really simple with ball in hand,” she said.
On the other hand, after becoming the UPW captain due to Alyssa Healy pulling out of the tournament with injury, Deepti said uncapped India pacer Kranti Goud and Australia leg-spinner Alana King are the WPL debutants for them. Alana is also one of the four overseas players included by UPW alongside Tahlia McGrath, Sophie Ecclestone, and Grace Harris.
“We would have bowled as well. We have had good practice sessions and good match simulations, so looking forward to playing today. There were plenty of bonding sessions during the camps, so it feels like we know each other’s strengths,” she said.
The pitch for Sunday’s game is a fresh surface, with the square boundaries being 58m and 50m respectively, while the straight boundary stands at 70m. In the pitch report, it was observed that the grass was less and cracks were open.
Playing XIs
Gujarat Giants: Beth Mooney (wk), Laura Wolvaardt, D Hemalatha, Deandra Dottin, Ashleigh Gardner (captain), Harleen Deol, Simran Shaikh, Tanuja Kanwer, Sayali Satghare, Priya Mishra, Kashvee Gautam.
UP Warriorz: Uma Chetry (wk), Vrinda Dinesh, Shweta Sehrawat, Kiran Navgire, Grace Harris, Deepti Sharma (captain), Tahlia McGrath, Alana King, Sophie Ecclestone, Saima Thakor, Kranti Goud.
–IANS
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