WPL Eliminator: MI look to continue dominance over Giants

Winner will face Delhi Capitals in the final
MUMBAI: For the third season in a row, Mumbai Indians will have to do it the hard way. After narrowly missing out on the top spot to Delhi Capitals, the former champions will face Gujarat Giants in the WPL eliminator at the Brabourne Stadium on Thursday. Capitals gained direct entry to the final on better run-rate after both teams finished level on 10 points after MI lost by 11 runs to RCB in the last group game on Tuesday. In the inaugural edition as well, MI lost out to Capitals on superior run-rate, while last season they finished two points behind.
MI's record in the eliminator stands at 1-1. While they raced to a convincing win over UP Warriorz, thanks to an Issy Wong hat-trick in 2023, last year they lost by five runs chasing a target of 135 against RCB, who went on to win the title. While MI haven't lost against Giants, having won all six encounters against them, the real challenge will be to keep players in good shape- Thursday's game will be their third in four days' time.
Jhulan Goswami, MI bowling coach and mentor, was confident that the back-to-back matches won't affect the team. "It's important for us to adjust with whatever schedule we have and to go out there and play your game. At the end of the day, as a cricketer, you want to go out to the middle and play all the time. These things are beyond our control. We just focus match by match, recover as soon as possible and come back stronger. That is how we prepare," said Goswami.
As the tournament enters the final stretch, MI will look to iron out flaws which were visible in the last two home games. Against both Giants and RCB, the bowlers struggled to restrict the runs in death overs. Bharti Fulmali went berserk as Giants scored 58 runs in the last five overs before falling short by nine runs. On Tuesday, RCB, batting first, scored 70 in the last five overs to set a mammoth total which MI failed to scale.
Their batting revolves around the exploits of Nat Sciver-Brunt, Hayley Matthews and Harmanpreet Kaur, but that's a risky approach which backfired against RCB-Matthews and Harmanpreet fell cheaply and SciverBrunt was left to wage a lone battle. Also, they will have to be more clinical on the field as they have dropped many catches, not to mention the numerous misfields.