It was a challenging evening for Gujarat Giants in Vadodara as Mumbai Indians delivered a commanding performance to secure a comprehensive victory over us on Tuesday. While the result was far from what we had hoped for, we take this as a learning experience and look forward to bouncing back in the upcoming matches.

After being asked to bat first, we endured a difficult start, losing Beth Mooney, Laura Wolvaardt, and Dayalan Hemalatha early, finding ourselves struggling at 16/3. Our hopes of a recovery took another hit when Ashleigh Gardner fell for just 10, and soon after, Deandra Dottin followed her back to the pavilion. At one stage, we were in danger of being bowled out for under 100, but Harleen Deol’s resilient knock of 32, along with valuable contributions from Kashvee Gautam, Tanuja Kanwer, and Sayali Satghare, helped us post a total of 120. For Mumbai Indians, Hayley Matthews was the standout performer with the ball, returning figures of 3/16 in her four-over spell.

With a modest total to defend, we started well with the ball, keeping things tight in the powerplay. Tanuja Kanwer provided the breakthrough by dismissing the dangerous Hayley Matthews for 17. Yastika Bhatia and Natalie Sciver-Brunt then built a steady 24-run stand before Priya Mishra struck to send Yastika back. Kashvee Gautam soon joined the act, getting the big wicket of Harmanpreet Kaur, keeping us in the hunt. However, Natalie Sciver-Brunt played a crucial role for Mumbai Indians, anchoring their chase with a brilliant half-century. We did dismiss Natalie Sciver-Brunt and Amelia Kerr towards the end but it was too late with Mumbai reaching the target in 16.1 overs.

This was not the performance we aimed for, but there is still a long way to go in the tournament, and we are determined to turn things around. We now shift our focus to our next challenge in Bengaluru, where we take on Delhi Capitals on Tuesday, 25th February. We aim to put on a strong display and get back to winning ways.