Sthalekar rues UP Warriorz leaving '30-40 runs out there'

Lisa Sthalekar, the mentor of UP Warriorz, admitted that the team were short by 30-40 runs, following their loss in their opening encounter of Women's Premier League 2025 against Gujarat Giants.

Put in to bat, UPW made a strong start with Kiran Navgire slamming three boundaries in the first two overs. However, once she departed at the end of the second over, the Deepti Sharma-led side was largely playing catchup. While the skipper scored a 27-ball 39, the rest of the batters struggled to keep pace. Moreover, the Giants bowlers kept striking at regular intervals to limit Warriorz to a below-par 143 for 9 eventually.

Two early strikes by Grace Harris and Sophie Ecclestone did offer hope for Warriorz to stage a fightback, but Ash Gardner's second counter attacking half-century nipped that challenge in the bud. Deandra Dottin and Harleen Deol stitched an unbeaten 58-run stand to help Giants over the finish line with two overs to spare and secure their first win of the season.

"If we were to look at our batting innings, we probably left 30 to 40 runs out there," Sthalekar admitted. "Losing wickets in clumps at the top and then also in the middle did really hurt us. But I thought the way that Deepti Sharma batted was really well. She actually had a pretty good game, all-round game. And then, obviously, Alana King and Saima Thakor right at the end to kind of get us up to that 140 mark gave our bowlers a chance.

"We started exceptionally well with the ball, but something that we've seen throughout the three games that have taken place here so far is when a bowler gets hit early on, there can be a couple of overs that go for really big overs, and we probably had a few too many given the below-par total that we put on the board."

Despite the loss, Sthalekar believes there were a lot of positives for her team to take, and not get too worked up with the result of one match. "There's always going to be positives to take from the game. It's our first game. I thought Krant (Goud) was making her debut, she looked good with the ball, she's got that extra pace.

"Alana King as well with the runs. Though she'll be a bit disappointed that she didn't execute as well as she would have liked with the ball. And like I said earlier, Deepti Sharma, I thought she actually showed the fight. Execution was probably just lacking slightly. The good thing is sometimes with these tournaments, you've got to park this performance and there's another game in a couple of days' time.

Much like it's been with Gardener, Giants' new skipper, Deepti has also shown good form to kickstart her captaincy tenure in WPL. Sthalekar believes it's a role that she has fit into well and could be one of the responsibilities that brings out the best in her.

"Sometimes giving someone the position means they focus on others more than themselves sometimes. So she's now in a position where she's got to be thinking about the rest of the team. Yet, still perform. Like when she goes out as a batter, she still has to perform as an individual player and she's done so exceptionally well.

"And she's come into a nice run of form with the bat. In T20 cricket, sometimes you need a bit of luck. But she's batting well. She's always been bowling really well. And, yeah, I think the leadership has certainly helped to bring the best out of her so far in this edition of the WPL."