“My job as a leader is to try and lead from the front and contribute as much as possible.” The Gujarat Giants skipper Beth Mooney after their first win of the 2nd edition of the WPL.
The Gujarat Giants openers Laura Wolvaardt and skipper Beth Mooney came out all guns blazing and the duo stitched the highest opening partnership (140 runs) this season after skipper Beth Mooney became the first captain to win the toss and bat first in the ongoing edition of the WPL.
The Gujarat Giants posted their highest total on the board this season (199/5). Skipper Beth Mooney led from the front and carried her bat throughout the innings, staying unbeaten on 85, scoring at an impressive strike rate of 166.66, alongside Laura Wolvaardt (76 off 45 balls) and were the top performers with the bat for Gujarat Giants. Skipper Beth Mooney smashed her maiden half-century in the Women’s Premier League.
“Yeah, really pleasing, I’ve obviously been pretty disappointing with my output, so far with the bat. It’s been a tough tournament for Gujarat, we haven’t obviously been on the board until tonight. But, my job as a leader is to try and lead from the front and contribute as much as possible, so whatever that looks like, I’m okay with, just the sign is I’m getting better so, yeah, just pleased tonight to help a little bit and have a nice partnership with Laura.” Skipper Beth Mooney is pleased to be able to lead from the front and contribute to her side’s first win of WPL 2024.
Chasing a target of 200, RCB was eventually restricted to 180/8 in their quota of overs. The Giants managed to survive a late scare from Georgia Wareham as they eventually got over the line by 19 runs. Georgia Wareham (48 off 22 balls), wicket-keeper batter Richa Ghosh (30 off 21 balls), and skipper Smriti Mandhana (24 off 16 balls) were the top performers with the bat for RCB.
Of course, it was an important game, but we must also see that how Gujarat played, the kind of start Laura Wolvaardt and Beth Mooney gave to them was very important for them and their point of view, they were coming on the back of four losses and were very much motivated, so credit to where it’s due. On the points table, yes it will complicate things to an extent, but again in a way also makes it simpler. We have two more games, we win both games, more or less we are through. So a win would have been nice tonight, but we take it as it comes.” RCB assistant coach, Malolan Rangarajan credits the opposition and speaks about keeping it simple for the rest of the games this season, in terms of their qualification scenarios.
(Information sourced from Jio Cinema)