Klinger blames fielding lapses for GG's Eliminator exit

As cliched as it may sound, the phrase 'catches win matches' is eternal in cricket, across formats both in the men's and women's game. The 2025 Women's Premier League eliminator clash between Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Giants was another game that was arguably decided by the fielding skills of the two teams. Sure, Hayley Matthews and Nat Sciver-Brunt put on a batting masterclass through their fifties and a 133-run record stand. However, had GG done the basics right, the two star batters may not have made it that far.

Both batters got reprieves - Matthews twice and Sciver-Brunt once at various stages of the game. In fact, the West Indian got her first life as early as the second over of the innings when Beth Mooney put a chance down behind the stumps off Ash Gardner. The GG skipper was involved in Matthews' second life as well, this time as a fielder, as the Aussie put a regulation chance down at long-on. The second one came in the 15th over just when the MI innings was hitting top gear in terms of acceleration. Nat Sciver-Brunt's drop came very late in the game but even putting the drops aside, the Giants' fielding was amateruish, something head coach Michael Klinger conceded to and felt was detrimental to the result.

"That (GG's poor fielding) was obvious for all to see," said Klinger at the post-match press conference. "And I thought that the Mumbai Indians' fielding was fantastic. They would have said the other night when they lost to RCB that they didn't field well so it does happen. We would have liked to put in a better performance in the field because like I said, there was about a 40 runs swing there, -20 to us and +20 to them. We lost by 47 runs, so sometimes that can be a big difference in the game."

It was an inauspicious start to the game for the Giants as star all-rounder Deandra Dottin had to miss out due to a last-minute injury during warm-ups. It meant a WPL debut for Danielle Gibson who for her part had a decent outing but GG understandably missed Dottin's flair. Speaking about the West Indian's unfortunate absence, Klinger explained the series of events that eventually led to Dottin's exit from the playing XI.

"She had a bit of pain in her knee. She has had a bit of an ongoing thing with her knee and the tendons just flared up during warm-up. It was painful for her and we took her into the change room to have a look, and decided to give her one more go. The thing with tendon injuries is that sometimes they can get better as you warm up. We tried to give her another opportunity (but it didn't work). She could have played as a batter alone but we would have been a bowler short."

It was a roller-coaster game for Gibson who struck off just her second delivery to remove Yastika Bhatia but also copped a lot of stick in the death overs from Sciver-Brunt. The all-rounder managed to pick up her senior English teammatebut not before being smoked for a plethora of fours and a few sixes. If the challenge of bowling in the PowerPlay wasn't enough, Gibson was also given the same role with the bat. With a big score to chase, GG sent her to open to maximise her power in the first six overs and she played a decent cameo before being run out.

"Deandra is a fantastic player, an impact player so there is no doubt that when she doesn't play last-minute, you lose a bit. But I thought Danny (Gibson) did a fantastic job. She was in our squad for that specific reason, to fill Deandra's spot if she was injured or had to miss a game due to whatever reason. She got an opportunity in the last game of the tournament after training well the whole four weeks. I'm happy for her."

With the two games in the Mumbai leg prior to the Eliminator being won by the team batting first, there were mixed reactions to Gardner's decision to field at the toss. While dew has been a factor and also came down heavily in the second half of this game, the venue dynamics had a clear bias towards sides batting first. It panned out much the same way as MI virtually batted GG out of the game with a massive total on the board. When quizzed about it, Klinger chose to sit on the fence.

"We may have misread it slightly. We felt the wicket had a bit of tackiness when we saw it before the toss. We thought it may have done a bit with the new ball in the first innings, or held a bit or spun a bit. But, that wasn't the case, it played well pretty well. Tosses in T20 games don't win you games. It was soaking wet in the second half, so probably would have been better off bowling first than second. But when you are defending a 200-plus score, you are putting a lot of pressure on the batting group, and that's how we lost most of our wickets."