Sleeping Gujarat Giants wake up: Beth Mooney leads from front as GG stun RCB for first win in WPL 2024

Gujarat Giants’ batters Beth Mooney and Laura Wolvaardt during the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2024 cricket match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Gujarat Giants, at Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi, Wednesday, March 6, 2024. (PTI Photo)

In an appraisal of a disastrous first half of this season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) for the Gujarat Giants, captain Beth Mooney was blunt. “Scoring a few more runs will be pretty helpful (in the future), probably from the skipper and then flowing through the rest of the team,” she said after a fourth successive defeat.

As the league moved to New Delhi for, and her side’s chances of going past the group stage hung in the balance, Mooney, alongside opening partner Laura Wolvaardt, batted as if they had taken that self-criticism to heart.

The duo toyed with the Royal Challengers Bangalore bowling attack and put on a 140-run partnership, as the Giants rammed their way to a 19-run win to open their account this year on Wednesday.

Mooney and Wolvaardt are so complementary in their strengths as a pair that it comes as a surprise that they have struggled to get things going this year. Giant have a lopsided, batting-heavy squad reliant on a top order that has neither strung together partnerships nor shown moments of individual brilliance (Ash Gardner’s 40 was the highest score in four prior matches)

On a belter at the Kotla on a chilly evening, the best of the pair was on full view.

Wolvaardt played a free-flowing 45-ball 76. It was strokeplay not necessarily reliant on aggression (13 fours, no sixes), the South African instead carving gaps in the field with the conviction in her shot selection that had evaded her in the first four games. Mooney’s speed between the wickets kept the scoreboard ticking as she let Wolvaardt take over the quicks, and later picked up the pace in scoring against the spinners, as is her forte. The Australian, a consistent scorer across formats, paced her innings finely as she turned a 21-ball 32 into a 51-ball 82.

| Why Gujarat Giants’ messily-assembled, inexperienced squad may already be forced to start looking towards next WPL

With just 44 runs in the last five overs, the Giants may have felt they left a few runs on the board, especially as Mooney’s brain fades led to a string of run outs. But RCB would do them a few favours by duplicating their sloppiness in the field and with the ball, with the bat as well.

With 14 wides, plenty of misfields, and no bowler with an economy lower than 8, Smriti Mandhana’s side had an off day to say the least. None of their batters converted starts and allowed the Giants to take control with consistent wickets. A late blitz from Georgia Wareham (48 from 22) would be in vain, cushioning a thorough defeat.

For the Giants and Mooney, hopes will be pinned on this first win in dominant fashion, to kickstart a late charge.