Gujarat Giants’ tidy start to the Women’s Premier League hit its first bump on Tuesday night, a 25-run defeat to Mumbai Indians at DY Patil Stadium that owed plenty to three missed chances off Harmanpreet Kaur. Head coach Michael Klinger cut a philosophical figure afterwards, but he did not dodge the obvious.
“It’s difficult when you give a player as good as Harmanpreet three chances,” he said, summarising the turning point in a match Mumbai eventually controlled with something to spare.
Key facts first
• Mumbai 178 for 5 (Harmanpreet 67*) beat Gujarat 153 for 7 (Ahuja 35) by 25 runs
• Giants had begun WPL 2026 with two wins from two
• Three catches went down – all off Harmanpreet – in the closing five overs
• Anushka Sharma missed out with a hand injury; Kanika Ahuja promoted to No. 3
Fielding slips prove costly
For a side that had looked razor-sharp in the field during its opening fixtures, the Giants suddenly appeared ragged. A handful of misfields and overthrows added to the pressure, but the dropped catches hurt most.
“We fielded really well in the first couple of games. And probably in the first 14-15 overs we fielded quite well and then all those dropped catches came in the back end in the last five-six overs,” Klinger noted, the frustration clear.
He was careful, though, to separate execution from effort. “It’s difficult when you give a player as good as Harmanpreet three chances, but at the same time, the effort, I can’t say anything bad about our effort in the field, and our work with training.”
That work is headed by former England keeper Sarah Taylor. “They’ve been working extremely hard with our fielding coach Sarah Taylor and all the other coaches. So certainly no issue with the effort. It’s difficult when you put good players down, catches down, and so it’s something we’ll keep working on. We’ve worked on [our fielding] really hard and we’ve had two good performances and probably one performance that’s not quite at our best.”
Batting tweak pays off – up to a point
Earlier, Klinger had shuffled his order in Anushka Sharma’s absence. The left-handed Kanika Ahuja, normally a finisher, strode in at first drop and immediately changed the tempo. She clattered 35 from 18 balls, four boundaries and two sixes sprinkled across the powerplay – the first six overs in which only two fielders are allowed outside the circle.
“We probably had a couple of options in that [No. 3] spot. Once we realised that Anushka was going to be unavailable for a game or two, and we felt Kanika had been training really well. [She’s] another left-hander up the top who can play pace and spin well, and I thought she played brilliantly today,” Klinger said.
The message had been simple. “We spoke to her about playing some strong shots, not trying to over-hit the ball, and I felt she did that really well, both to pace and spin, hitting through and over the field brilliantly.”
The coach reckons there is more to come. “She started so well and still had about 19 [17.2] overs left to bat, and I think there’s even a lot of upside there and she can get some even bigger scores for us if she gets that opportunity down the track.”
Ahuja’s cameo kept Gujarat on par with the required rate until the middle overs, but once she, Beth Mooney and Jemimah Rodrigues fell in quick succession the chase stalled. Mumbai used slower balls smartly on a tacky surface, conceding just 27 runs in overs 15 to 18 – the crunch phase of most T20 chases.
Where the result leaves both teams
• Mumbai Indians: two wins from three, momentum regained after a narrow loss to UP Warriorz
• Gujarat Giants: two wins, one defeat, with a short turnaround before their next match in Baroda on 19 January – Anushka Sharma is pencilled in to return then.
What’s next?
Expect Ahuja to stay at No. 3 while Anushka recovers, and expect plenty of high-catch drills in Giants training. A single poor night in the deep does not define a season, but, as Klinger acknowledged, giving a player of Harmanpreet Kaur’s pedigree extra lives usually leads to only one outcome.
