Ashleigh Gardner has won many matches as an all-rounder -- for Australia women, Sydney Sixers, Northern Districts, and Trent Rockets. On Sunday, she won her first match as captain, helping Gujarat Giants to a six-wicket win against UP Warrorz, in their second match of the Women's Premier League (WPL) 2025 at the Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara.
The 27-year-old Australian was "very pleased" to win her first match as captain after losing to defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru Women in a close encounter in the WPL opener on February 14.
Very pleased. Weren't that far off the other game. To come out and play the brand of cricket we spoke of, feels special. There's always things to improve on.
Gardner picked up 2-39 and with debutant spinner Priya Mishra bagging 3-25 and Deandra Dotting claiming 2-34 helped Gujarat Giants restrict UP Warriorz to a modest total of 143/9 in their allotted 20 overs. Captain Deepti Sharma topscored for UP Warriorz while Uma Chetry contributed 24 runs UP lost wickets at regular intervals against the disciplined bowling.
The Australian star was even more impactful with the bat as she hammered a 32-ball 52 (5x4, 3x6) and with Harleen Deol (34 not out) and Deandra Dotting (33 not out) sharing an unfinished partnership of 58 runs for the fifth wicket, Gujarat Giants romped home to victory with 12 balls remaining as they reached 144/4.
Gardner gave credit to her bowlers and especially praised leg-spinner Priya Mishra, who picked up three important wickets in Tahlia McGrath (0), Grace Harris (4) and Shweta Sehrawat (15), for her effort.
Our bowlers did a fantastic job. Priya Mishra, to pick up three wickets at that stage, makes captaincy easy. I feel like I probably missed a little bit in these two games. I also bowled a bit quick, so it runs away on these fields.
Former India captain Mithali Raj also praised Priya Mishra for her superb bowling effort.
The leggie has done very well. She was very tight in her line and length and it was a much better performance than the first game -- she was playing her first WPL match, and obviously, a youngster would have a lot of nerves. But in the second game, she was very different with so much confidence and the attitude that she wanted to get wickets and that she is okay with giving singles but she was going for wickets. That talks a lot about her character and for a leg-spinner to be so consistent and attack the stumps really needs work and she has that control.
On the batting front, Gardner said everyone has their own style of batting style, helping them score big runs.
Everyone's got their method to batting. Dottin clears her front leg and whacks big sixes. Harleen is methodical and waits for the ball to come to her. I am in between. Mooney and Wolvaardt set the platform for me to come in.
Deandra, who hit an 18-ball 33 not out and took 2-32 with the ball, talked about her plan to dismiss a rampaging Kiran Navgire and how she was looking to finish the chase in style.
(On Navgire's wicket) I remembered the final of the Women's T20 Challenge and how I bowled at her. I came here and executed.” Felt they were 20-30 runs short, so we were confident to chase the 140-odd they gave us. To be honest, I was looking to finish it. It was a matter of watching the ball and hitting it hard. I was actually a missing piece for the WPL as a whole.
On her part, UP Warriorz captain Deepti Sharma was disappointed in losing her first WPL game as and felt the batters have to step up to overcome this loss in the next few matches
The way the track played, as a batting unit, we should have stepped up more. In the middle, if we could have added a short partnership, we could have got to 170-180. We have the bowling strength, and as a bowling unit, we have done well. There was dew, and the way the track played, the bowlers did well. As a batting unit as well as some balls we could not execute as per our field. If we can execute that, it will be good.
Gujarat Giants will next play Mumbai Indians Women in Vadodara on Tuesday while UP Warriorz will meet Delhi Capitals Women at the same venue on the next day.
