Fifties from McGrath, Healy can't stop Mumbai momentum

Alyssa Healy and Tahlia McGrath have both struck attractive fifties but couldn't prevent UP Warriorz from losing to the unbeaten Mumbai Indians in the WPL.

ALYSSA HEALY.
ALYSSA HEALY. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Alyssa Healy has shown once more why she's the best ODI batter in the game while Tahlia McGrath has demonstrated why she's the top-ranked T20 player in women's cricket.

Yet even with their latest impressive fifties in the Women's Premier League, the two Australians were still unable to derail Mumbai Indians' remarkable unbeaten start to the tournament as the home team made it four wins out of four at the Brabourne Stadium on Sunday.

Australia's World Cup-winning women have been in sparkling form throughout the first two weeks as the WPL reached its halfway point.

Yet it's somewhat ironic that Mumbai, the only one of the five teams who've not actually used their sole Aussie recruit - Heather Graham can't break into the dominant starting XI - are the outfit dominating the event.

Opting to bat first, Warriorz captain Healy cracked 58 off 46 balls to launch their innings and McGrath then breezed in with 50 off 37 as the pair shared a third-wicket partnership of 82.

But once they were both dismissed by the tournament's leading wicket-taker Saika Ishaque in the space of three balls, the momentum disappeared and the Warriorz stuttered to 6-159.

Still a decent total, English star Nat Sciver-Brunt (45no off 31) and India's national team captain Harmanpreet Kaur (53no off 33) made it look easy meat as their unbroken partnership of 106 eased Mumbai to their target on 2-164, winning by eight wickets with 15 balls to spare.

McGrath only bowled one over and it got clocked for 19 with Kaur belting her for 4, 6, 4 and 4 in consecutive deliveries.

"We were probably 15 to 20 runs short," reckoned Healy, suggesting that her own innings "was as scratchy as it comes".

"We didn't score as many boundaries as the Mumbai Indians did. We also bowled too much junk and gave too many boundaries."

The Warriorz didn't get any luck either. Behind the stumps in the 11th over, keeper Healy was already celebrating when the stumps lit up as Kaur was bowled by Anjali Sarvani - but the bails simply wouldn't budge.

At halfway, the Warriorz are still third on four points behind Meg Lanning's second-placed Delhi Capitals on six points, with Mumbai on eight.

Lanning remains the tournament's leading scorer with 206 runs, while Healy is second on 185.