Captain Harmanpreet Kaur, Hayley Matthews, and Amelia Kerr were the star performers for Mumbai Indians when they defeated Gujarat Giants in their penultimate league stage match in the Women's Premier League (WPL) 2025 at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on March 10.
But there was an x-factor in the match that nearly pulled off an improbable win for Gujarat Giants. Bharti Fulmali blazed to a 25-ball 61, studded with eight fours and four sixes as she took Gujarat Giants past 140 in their chase of a 180-run target. In the end, Gujarat Giants fell short by just nine runs as Matthews and Kerr bagged three wickets each.
As Mumbai Indians get ready to play the Eliminator match for the third successive season, they will be depending on their top five batters - Hayley Matthews, Amelia Kerr, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur and Amanjot Kaur - on put in across Gujarat Giants.
Nat Sciver-Brunt is the highest-scorer with 416 runs while Matthews and Kerr, both of whom have taken 14 wickets so far, are the top wicket-takers.
After putting up a remarkable show on the league stage, the Gujarat Giants will leave no stone unturned to make it to their maiden WPL final.
Ahead of the contest, Gujarat Giants head coach Michael Klinger believes his side has what it takes to go all the way in the competition.
Our goal at the start of the season was to qualify for the final, so we can certainly tick that off now. Now that we're here, we desperately want to win the whole thing, and there's no reason we can't do that. We know when we play anywhere near or close to our best, we can beat most teams in the competition.
Klinger reckoned
We've talked a lot about staying disciplined for longer than the opposition and staying in the fight longer than the opposition. I think we've shown that in games we've won and probably in a couple that we've just fallen short as well.
Speaking about how his team has executed their aggressive approach this season, Klinger said
Gujarat Giants had a challenging start, winning just one of their first four matches, but they turned things around with a stunning fightback, registering three consecutive wins to secure a playoff spot in the WPL for the first time.
They will now hope to take it a step forward and make it to their maiden final
