The UP Warriorz’s owner, Jinisha Sharma, and captain, Deepti Sharma, met Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ahead of their pivotal home-leg matches in the ongoing 3rd edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2025.
CM Yogi gave the team his best wishes and encouraged the team to deliver historic results. The Warriorz’s also invited the honourable Chief Minister to attend their upcoming games at home venue, the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium.
“We are extremely happy to receive the good wishes of Hon’ble Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath Ji. He has inspired our team to put our best foot forward as we move into our home leg games here in Lucknow,” remarked Jinisha Sharma, the team’s owner.
In agreement, Captain Deepti Sharma praised the Chief Minister’s support and viewed the experience as an honour. With the encouragement of the state’s top officials, the Warriorz are even more motivated to turn their season around with impressive home performances.
The UP Warriorz are seeded fourth in the WPL 2025 points table with two wins in their five games so far. Failing to defend 143 against Gujarat Giants and losing to Delhi Capitals by seven wickets despite posting a competitive 166, the UP Warriorz had a difficult start to the season.
However, in their third match against Delhi, they recovered and won by 33 runs. They then defeated RCB in the first-ever WPL Super Over, which was their most spectacular win. In their most recent game, they suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Mumbai Indians, failing to defend 142, losing by eight wickets.
With two of their players—Deepti Sharma and Grace Harris—achieving incredible hat-tricks in back-to-back seasons, the UP Warriorz have cemented their place in WPL history. In the league stage match against the Delhi Capitals in 2024, Deepti Sharma became the first Indian player to record a WPL hat-trick. She turned the tide of the match in UP Warriorz’s favour and secured a crucial victory by dismissing Meg Lanning, Annabel Sutherland, and Arundhati Reddy in three consecutive deliveries.
A year later, against Delhi Capitals, Grace Harris carried on the team’s tradition of hat-tricks. Harris bowled the last over, removing Minnu Mani, Arundhati Reddy, and Niki Prasad to bundle out the Capitals to register their first win of the season.
UP will want to improve their chances of making the playoffs by taking advantage of the home field as they go into the Lucknow leg of the competition.
On March 3, the Warriorz will play the Gujarat Giants at home, which is a game that could help them get going. After that, the team has a difficult schedule that includes matches against Mumbai Indians on March 6 and the reigning champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru on March 8.
The goal of UP Warriorz, led by Deepti Sharma and head coach Jon Lewis, is to capitalise on well-known surroundings and substantial local support in order to win important games. With the expectation that home advantage will help the Warriorz have a great WPL 2025 campaign, Lucknow fans are getting ready to support their club.
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