After a thumping 10-wicket win over RCB in WPL 2023, UP Warriorz skipper Alyssa Healy on Friday, March 10, credited bowlers especially spinners for their success, saying that they held their nerve and took wickets at crucial times. Excellent outings from spinners Sophie Ecclestone (4/13) and Deepti Sharma (3/26) helped UP Warriorz bowl out RCB for 138 despite a fighting half-century (52 off 39) by Ellyse Perry in a WPL 2023 match. After Perry, Sophie Devine (36 off 24) was next top-scorer for RCB as other batters struggled to get going against a disciplined UP bowling attack.
In reply, Healy (96 not out) smashed RCB bowlers all-round the park to score a quickfire fifty and she got perfect support from her opening partner Devika Vaidya Devika Vaidya (36 not out off 31). None of the RCB bowlers looked effective as Healy and Devika stitched an unbeaten and attacking opening partnership of 139 runs as UP Warriorz chased down the target in just 13 overs.
"Really pleased with our bowlers tonight to keep them under 200. Full credit to the spinners as they held their nerve and took wickets at crucial times. It was spin to win tonight. It was a good batting wicket and the spinners did a fine job," said Healy at the post-match presentation.
Asked about the promotion of Vaidya in the batting order in place of Shweta, Healy said that she was impressed by the former's performance in the series against Australia. "Shweta is only a baby and coming into such a competition is difficult. We watched Vaidya in the recent series (against India) and wondered what she was doing at number 7, she played a fine knock and took the pressure off me. We just set the platform early and by the timeout we needed run a ball to win, we didn't want to drag it too long," she said.
This was UP's second win in three matches and they are at third spot in the points table while RCB suffered their fourth consecutive loss to stay at the bottom.