This was easily done. None of the last over, last ball drama of the previous game. In fact it was done with 11 balls to spare. Mumbai Indians were super-efficient, super-clinical, super-cool, as they sealed their third win over the Gujarat Giants in as many games. And jumped to the top of the points table with a second win on the trot. Okay, here’s how the day went..

Shabnim Ismail does Shabnim Ismail things

A first over wicket, check. Rattling the top-order, check. Taking a stunning catch in the outfield, check. Coming back and breaking a fledgling partnership, check. Shabnim Ismail is wasting no time in making this WPL 2024 her own.

* Veda Krishnamurthy lbw b Ismail 0(2)

* Harleen Deol lbw b Ismail 8(9)

* Beth Mooney c Bhatia b Ismail 24(22)

* Ash Gardner c Ismail b Kerr 15(22)

“I still want to be quickest in the world. I am working on hitting 130 clicks, I'm still working as hard as I can. Worked a lot on bowling in powerplays and that has helped the team so far,” she quipped at the end of the game.

Mumbai-Kerr does it all!

There’s this thing with Amelia Kerr. When she does something, she ends up doing everything. It’s very rare that she’d shine only with the ball. So on a day when she picked up four wickets with the ball to derail the Gujarat Giants, she smashed a 25-ball 31 in the chase to make sure there was no twist, and we got home safe and sound.

And of course, Kaptaan Kaur loves the Gujarat Giants

After expertly marshalling her troops around, mixing them up, not letting the Gujarat batters settle, bringing back Shabnim for her second spell just when the partnership between Gardner and Mooney was growing, she put on another show with the bat. Boy, she loves playing against the Giants, having smashed two fifties against them in the previous season. She’d have had a third fifty here had the runs not run out. In an anchored 41-ball 46, she was the calm after a bit of a flutter when MI were on 49/3. It wasn’t her tod-fod avatar, it was the Kalm Kaptaan avatar.

Two games, two wins. This WPL has gotten off to the perfect start for us, Paltan. The Chinnaswamy, the land where red is usually the more dominant colour, is glowing with our Blue and Gold. Let’s keep doing all our drills, all our superstitions, and every single thing we’ve done over these last two matches for the next month, and get our Mumbai Indians on an unstoppable juggernaut!  

Brief scores: Gujarat Giants 126/9 (20 overs) (Tanuja Kanwar 28, Kathryn Bryce 25; Amelia Kerr 4/17) lost to Mumbai Indians 129/5 (18.1 overs) (Harmanpreet kaur 46, Amelia Kerr 31; Tanuja Kanwar 2/21) by 5 wickers