MUM­BAI, In­dia – Hay­ley Matthews pro­duced yet an­oth­er stel­lar all-around per­for­mance as the Mum­bai In­di­ans Women beat the Gu­jarat Gi­ants yet again, to put them­self in prime po­si­tion to gain an au­to­mat­ic fi­nal berth in the Women’s Pre­mier League (WPL) on Mon­day.

Matthews scored a brisk 27 from 22 balls at the top of the or­der as the Mum­bai In­di­ans post­ed 179 for six from their 20 overs, and then re­turned to take three wick­ets as the Gi­ants were bowled out for 170 to give the home side a nine-run vic­to­ry.

It was the sixth time in six matchups that the Mum­bai In­di­ans de­feat­ed the Gi­ants in the WPL.

Af­ter be­ing sent in to bat, Mum­bai were led by cap­tain Har­man­preet Kaur, who blast­ed 54 from 33 balls, Nat Sciv­er-Brunt made 38 and Aman­jot Kaur hit 27 from 15 balls.

De­an­dra Dot­tin went wick­et­less in her four overs that went for 44 runs.

Matthews then took the key wick­ets of Gi­ants’ cap­tain Ash­leigh Gard­ner for a duck, Sim­ran Shaikh and Priya Mishra with her off spin to end with 3-38 from four overs.

Amelia Kerr took 3-34 while Shab­n­im Islmail fin­ished with 2-17.

Dot­tin made just 10 from 11 balls be­fore be­ing bowled by Kerr.

The re­sult means that if the Mum­bai In­di­ans win their fi­nal pre­lim­i­nary match against the Roy­al Chal­lengers Ben­galu­ru on Tues­day, they will fin­ish top of the ta­ble and book a di­rect spot in the WPL fi­nal.

How­ev­er, if they lose, they will have to face the Gi­ants in an Elim­i­na­tor, with the win­ner play­ing the Del­hi Cap­i­tals Women in the fi­nal.

CMC