After being invited to bat first on a sluggish surface, the Giants found themselves in familiar trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite a steady start by opener Beth Mooney, who scored 38 off 34 balls, the middle order struggled to adapt to the slow pitch.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Sophie Devine had endured a lean patch with three consecutive single-digit scores and chose the perfect moment to return to form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Batting with poise and calculation, Devine anchored the innings. She survived an early run-out scare and was even dropped on 35, but she capitalized on these reprieves brilliantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the final over, she took Shikha Pandey to the cleaners, smashing two sixes to reach her unbeaten 50 off 42 balls. Her late surge propelled Gujarat to a competitive total of 153\/8, a score that proved to be more than enough on the challenging track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UP Warriorz’ chase never truly took flight, hindered by both exceptional bowling and a touch of misfortune. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Early wickets, including a bizarre stumping of Kiran Navgire and the unlucky dismissal of captain Meg Lanning, left the Warriorz reeling in the powerplay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Enter Rajeshwari Gayakwad. Making her return to the starting XI, the veteran left-arm spinner turned the game into a one-sided affair. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She ran through the heart of the Warriorz’ middle order, finishing with remarkable figures of 3\/16. Her ability to deceive the batters with flight and subtle changes in pace left the UP side searching for answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pressure was relentless as Devine followed up her batting heroics with a clinical spell, taking 2\/16, while Renuka Singh Thakur provided vital early breakthroughs (2\/20). The Warriorz were eventually bundled out for a paltry 108 in 17.3 overs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This comprehensive victory has significantly boosted the Giants\u2019 campaign, catapulting them from the bottom of the table to the second spot in the WPL 2026 standings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the Royal Challengers Bengaluru remains at the top, the race for the remaining playoff spots is now wide open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Gujarat, the timely return to form of Sophie Devine and the match-winning impact of Gayakwad\u2019s spin offered a clear blueprint for success as Gujarat Giants beat Delhi, <\/a>and the tournament moved into its decisive phase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":993,"template":"","tags":[477,478,479],"ppma_author":[493],"class_list":["post-992","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-devine-and-gayakwad-shine","tag-gayakwad-spin-bowling","tag-sophie-devine-performance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cricbex.com\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cricbex.com\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cricbex.com\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cricbex.com\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cricbex.com\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cricbex.com\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cricbex.com\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=992"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cricbex.com\/story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}