MI-W vs UPW-W

That's all we have for you from the 2025 Women's Premier League for today. The UP Warriorz, now languishing at fourth place, will be able to enjoy home advantage for the rest of the league phase. They play on the 3rd of March next, against the Gujarat Giants. The Mumbai Indians won't have as long a break as their opponents tonight - they'll face the Delhi Capitals at the Chinnaswamy the day after tomorrow. As for tomorrow - we'll be back with our coverage of the WPL with a mouth-watering clash between the Royal Challengers Bengaluru and the Gujarat Giants from the Chinnaswamy. Join us right here on Sportskeeda in the evening tomorrow for that, and keep an eye on our tabs for a whole lot more! This is Rajarshi Das, signing off on behalf of Bidipto Datta. Good night!

No surprises with the Player Of The Match - it's Natalie Sciver-Brunt for a thorough all-round performance! Let's hear from her: I'm enjoying my batting at the moment, feel good in myself. We always talk about the key players, she (Chinelle Henry) has played a couple of crucial innings for the UP Warriorz. We put our plans in place, it's great when it comes off. Another day and she would have hit it into the sand. (On what's in her coffee that drives her to perform this well) My favourite cafe in Bangalore, can't tell you the name because I'll get in trouble for telling too many people. Serving great coffee. The vibe in our group is brilliant, any day anyone can put in a match-winning performance. Love being on the field, lots of energy. The way we communicate is really good, with the coaches and also Harman on the pitch, making sure the bowlers are bowling at the right times. I'm just enjoying my batting, will keep the same mindset going forward.

Harmanpreet Kaur (Mumbai Indians captain): We tried to execute what we thought. Really happy with the result. Getting wicket in the first over always a plus point. Happy with the way our medium pacers bowled, also the way Sanskriti bowled was special. You need to keep doing the right things over and over again. Sanskriti's over was very crucial and she turned the tables for us. When I saw her first time, thought she was very young but she's sorted in her head. She knows what she is doing, bowled really well. We need to keep doing the same thing again and again. Lot of experience in the side, they know their roles well. When she (Sciver-Brunt) went in to bat, we were in a crucial moment. She's experienced, showed her talent, batted really well. The pitch was looking different when she was batting. Love to see her the way she batted, would wish her all the best for the rest of the competition.

Hayley Matthews (Mumbai Indians): My innings was a bit choppy, but with Natalie Sciver-Brunt at the other end, I kept supporting her and stuck to it. Just looking at what the team needed, I brought her on strike and it helped. I am a bit of a back-foot player, but the wicket was a bit slow and I struggled on the front foot tonight. Natalie has been so consistent! It's a big confidence boost for us having her around. 

Deepti Sharma (UP Warriorz captain): Back-to-back wickets stalled our progress. We should have put 165-170 on the board on this wicket. Grace Harris was given the role to play her shots, and she did it. Today it didn't quite work for us in the middle-order, but we will look to bounce back. We need to work on building partnerships in the middle-order. 

10:35 P.M. IST - Match summary:

Mumbai Indians win by 8 wickets with 18 balls to spare

Natalie Sciver-Brunt 75*(44) | Natalie Sciver-Brunt 3/18 (4)
Grace Harris 45 (26) | Deepti Sharma 1/25 (3)

The UP Warriorz bowlers had the Mumbai Indians on a stranglehold for most of the 6-over powerplay. Chinelle Henry and Sophie Ecclestone kept things really, really tight with the new ball - a mere six runs came off the first three overs. Yastika Bhatia failed to open her account having faced seven deliveries, and picked out Kranti Goud at deep mid-wicket off Deepti Sharma off her eight.

Matthews, at the other end, had a reprieve at the start of the third over, and was struggling for timing for a considerable amount of time, but she eventually managed to break the shackles. The arrival of Natalie Sciver-Brunt to the crease helped her in that to a large extent as well. Sciver-Brunt, who was instrumental with the ball in the first innings, had her best to come with the bat.

Having played herself in, Sciver-Brunt found the boundary off three successive occasions against Saima Thakor, and the Mumbai Indians closed out the powerplay in style. Both batters went on to show tremendous application - a boundary every over going into the halfway stage and beyond to go with frequent strike rotation immensely helped the Mumbai Indians bring the equation down to under a run-a-ball going into the final five.

Matthews put her foot down right away. 22 runs came off the 16th over as the Barbadian clobbered Grace Harris' off-breaks to bring up a half-century of her own. She was dismissed with four to get, and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur got the job done with a deft tickle. Presentations coming up shortly...

16.6 Sophie Ecclestone to Harmanpreet Kaur, FOUR RUNS! AND THAT ENDS THE MATCH! MUMBAI INDIANS WIN! Good-length arm-ball on middle-stump. Inside-edged off the front foot push to the right of the short fine-leg for a boundary! 

16.5 Sophie Ecclestone to Hayley Matthews, IT'S A WICKET NOW! Back of a length on off-stump. This holds a bit and jumps on the batter. Matthews' clip off the back foot on to the on-side gets chipped to the fielder at mid-on. She takes the catch without any hassle!

Hayley Matthews c Vrinda Dinesh b Sophie Ecclestone 59 (50b, 7x4, 2x6)

16.1 Sophie Ecclestone to Natalie Sciver-Brunt, round the wicket, short on middle-stump. A short-arm pull to wide long-on off the back foot for one more. 

This was the same batter who had five runs next to her name after facing 12 deliveries at the initial stages of the chase. Hayley Matthews, aided by Natalie Sciver-Brunt to a large extent, has succeeded in breaking free, registered a half-century, and is indeed looking to finish things off quickly. Not much for both teams to talk about as we head into the final time-out of the night.

15.6 Grace Harris to Hayley Matthews, FOUR TO FINISH THE OVER! Slightly back of a length on off-stump. Hoisted over the in-field off the back foot wide of long-on for a one bounce boundary here. Strategic timeout. 

15.5 Grace Harris to Hayley Matthews, FOUR MORE! Tossed up around off-stump. The attempted lofted drive over cover ends up getting thickly outside-edged to the left of short third!