UP Warriorz skipper Alyssa Healy tackled a pitch invader after he entered the field of play during the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2024 match against Mumbai Indians in Bengaluru on Wednesday. The veteran Australia cricketer was not pleased with the pitch invader and took it upon herself to stop him from disrupting play. The incident happened on the final over of MI’s innings when Anjali Sarvani dismissed Sajeevan Sajana and although it was not aired, pictures have gone viral on social media.
Meanwhile, Kiran Navgire and Alyssa Healy unleashed a remarkable assault on Mumbai Indians bowlers to power UP Warriorz to a seven-wicket win in their WPL 2024 match.
Navigre (57, 31b, 6×4, 4×6) and Healy (33, 29 balls) added 94 runs for the opening wicket stand in just 9.1 overs as the Warriorz eased past the 162-run target in 16.4 overs to hand the defending champions their first defeat of the season.
Mumbai batting suffered in the absence of skipper and in-form batter Harmanpreet Kaur, who is nursing a niggle, as a laboured 55 off 47 balls from Hayley Matthews guided them to 161 for six.
Roy and Sam Kerr would be proud!
Alyssa Healy has tackled a pitch invader in the WPL overnight. Dont mess with an Aussie when they’re locked in! pic.twitter.com/gGgFEGGKU4
— ABC SPORT (@abcsport) February 28, 2024
It was a competitive total but the Mumbai bowlers would not have suspected a carnage like the one Navigre and Healy unloaded on them.
Navigre, who is the only Indian women batter to score a 150-plus score in senior T20s, fully exploited her promotion as opener, as Mumbai also suffered from the injury-enforced absence of lead pacer Shabnim Ismail.
Healy gave a sound start to UP’s chase with two successive boundaries off pacer Nat-Sciver Brunt, and they kept the momentum going from that point.
Navigre, who made a slow start making five off six balls, slipped into her aggressive best against pacer Issy Wong, hammering her for four fours in the third over to collect 16 runs and it was just the beginning of the onslaught.
Alyssa Healy tackling the pitch invader tonight at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. pic.twitter.com/PmR0Z6jrXF
— CricCat (@CrystoG) February 29, 2024
Navigre, who was dropped on 42 by Wong near the ropes off Matthews, soon completed his fifty in just 25 balls and it came through a thundering six off the West Indian spinner over long-on.
But leg-spinner Amelia Kerr had player of the match Navigre stumped to give a bite of respite to Mumbai, who seemed to have gained a foothold as Wong dismissed both Healy and Tahlia McGrath in the 11th over.
They needed 64 runs at this stage, but Grace Harris (38, 17 balls) and Deepti Sharma (27, 20 balls) made those runs with minimum fuss.
(With PTI inputs)
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