WPL 2023: Hayley Matthews Hits First Six and Four, Tanuja Kanwar Picks Up First Wicket

Hayley Matthews hit the first six ever of the Women’s Premier League as well as the four with Tanuja Kanwar picking up the first wicket of the WPL.

The Gujarat Giants won the toss and elected to bowl against the Mumbai Indians in the first match of the inaugural Women’s Premier League at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai on Saturday.

WPL 2023: GG v MI – LIVE

After a quiet first over, Matthews welcomed Mansi Joshi to the tournament with a huge six. The ball was barely short but the West Indian picked up the length early to swivel and cross-bat the ball over the square leg boundary.

The very next delivery was creamed down to third man region as a misfield allowed the ball to trickle over for the first four.

Tanuja, on the other hand, got the wicket of Yastika Bhatia, the first-ever to fall in the Women’s Premier League. On the third ball of the third over, Tanuja bowled a loopy delivery wide on the offside as looked to drive. Unfortunately, she did not connect properly as the ball went uppishly towards the cover-point, where Georgia Wareham took a smart catch. Yastika had to depart for just one run, the first of the tournament, after facing eight balls.

Earlier, ahead of the start of the match, a glittering opening ceremony took place which featured Bollywood actors Kiara Advani, Kriti Sanon and Punjabi pop star AP Dhillon. The ceremony ended with the captains of the five franchises unveiling the trophy that they will be playing for.

MI captain Harmanpreet Kaur said at the toss, “It’s a special day for all of us, want to enjoy this moment. This is a good wicket to bat on, but there will be something in it for the bowlers as well.”

“Absolutely thrilled to be part of (WPL), a big crowd and I’m loving it. We have an entertaining group, we speak a lot about cricket. We have had the experience of playing in front of a big ground, we can pass it on to the younger members,” Gujarat Giants captain Beth Mooney said.

Five teams will play 20 group stage games over the next three weeks of the tournament on the pattern of the cash-rich men’s Indian Premier League.

The final will be played on March 26.

(With inputs from Agencies)

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