WPL 2023: Kim Garth exhales fire to snare the second fifer of the day

Gujarat Giants. (Photo Source: Twitter/WPL)

After a disastrous loss in the first match, Gujarat Giants came back with much improvement for the second game and redeemed themselves after their last night’s performance to a great extent. While the Giants’ batters did give UP Warriorz runs on the board to go after, the chase was derailed by the Ireland-born fast bowler Kim Garth who returned excellent figures to dismantle Warriorz’s batting order.

Kim Garth replaced injured Deandra Dottin in the Gujarat Giants squad and little did they know that she would turn out to be the key to open Giants’ doors to fortunes. She started with the new ball and after a bland first over struck right with the first delivery of her second over to grab a perfect return catch to dismiss the UP captain Alyssa Healy.

By virtue of Healy’s dismissal, she has now claimed Healy three times in seven innings to set up the numbers on her side. However, the over was far from being done as on the penultimate ball of the same over, she got rid of the other opener Shweta Sehrawat only to follow it with the third wicket of the over as on the very next delivery, Garth got Tahlia McGrath caught by Dayalan Hemalatha to put Warriorz in deep trouble, reducing them to 19/3.

Navgire fights it out for Warriorz

After inflicting an early disaster upon Warriorz, Garth was given a break during which Kiran Navgire, of whom much was expected before the tournament, lived up to all of it and steadily kept steering UP’s innings to not let the hopes die out. She formed a 46 run partnership with Deepti Sharma, which stretched over nine overs, at the end of which Deepti was clean bowled by Mansi Joshi. But with Navgire going strong after having scored a 50, things weren’t yet over for Warriorz.

Garth was brought back into the attack by the skipper to make things easier for Giants. She exactly served the purpose she was called in for and dismissed the dangerous looking Navgire to pick up her fourth scalp of the innings. However, it seemed Gerth was far from being content. On the very next delivery, she disturbed Simran Shaikh’s woodwork to snare the second fifer of the day and the first for Giants in the tournament.