Bengaluru, Feb 22 (IANS) Chinelle Henry’s quickfire 62 off 23 balls, propelled UP Warriorz to a competitive score of 177/9 against Delhi Capitals in their Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2025 match at the M. Chinnaswamy here on Saturday. The West Indies’ batter played the rescue act after a four-fer by Jess Jonassen and two scalps each by Arundhati Reddy and Marizanne Kapp had put Delhi Capitals in a dominant position after DC had won the toss and elected to bowl first.
Henry’s innings, at a strike rate of 269.57 with two fours and eight sixes, saw her hit the joint-fastest fifty in WPL history as she reached the milestone in 18 balls. It was certainly an important toss to win for the Capitals, given the team that has won the toss here has chosen to bowl first and gone on to win the game in each of the seven matches played so far.
After being put to bat first, UP Warriorz started cautiously but were dealt their first blow in the third over. Marizanne Kapp claimed her first wicket of the night off a full-length delivery which caught a faint edge of Vrinda Dinesh’s bat, which was confirmed upon review by DC.
Kiran Navgire and skipper Deepti Sharma slowly built their innings and took the score to 38/1 by the end of the power-play before the former fell, on the very next delivery. The first ball by Arundhati Reddy, a short one, saw Kiran attempt a pull shot but ended up top-edging it to the deep-backward square-leg fielder. Deepti followed soon after as she tried to sweep Jess but ended up finding the fielder at square leg.
Shweta Sehrawat tried to target Arundhati with a six and four in the 11th over in hopes of increasing the run rate. However, she was bowled on the very next delivery. What followed was a brief three-over period in which the Warriorz failed to score a single boundary.
However, the game completely flipped on its head after Uma Chetry was dismissed by Shikha Pandey. Chenille came to the crease with her side struggling at 91/6 in 14 overs and a score of 120 looking likely. The West Indies batter took the fight to the Delhi bowlers starting with Arundhati by hitting back-to-back sixes on the final two balls of the 15th over.
The 29-year-old continued her rampage against Arundhati, and reached her half-century in style, by hitting four consecutive sixes on the first four balls of the penultimate over. Although the damage was done, Jess struck twice in the last over by dismissing Sophie Ecclestone and Chinelle on the final ball of the innings to take her tally to four for the night.
Brief score:
UP Warriorz 177/9 in 20 overs (Chinelle Henry 62, Tahlia McGrath 24; Jess Jonassen 4-31, Marizanne Kapp 2-18) vs Delhi Capitals
–IANS
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