MUM­BAI, In­dia – West In­dies Women’s cap­tain Hay­ley Matthews played a star­ring role in the his­toric open­ing game of the in­au­gur­al Women Pre­mier League in In­dia Sat­ur­day, as her Mum­bai In­di­ans crushed Gu­jarat Gi­ants by 143 runs.

The el­e­gant right-han­der punched 47 from 31 balls at the top of the or­der, help­ing to lay the foun­da­tion for Mum­bai’s mas­sive 207 for five from their 20 overs.

Play­er-of-the-Match, cap­tain Har­man­preet Kaur, top-scored with 65 from 30 de­liv­er­ies, while 22-year-old New Zealan­der Amelia Kerr struck a swift un­beat­en 45 from 24 balls.

Gi­ants, mi­nus re­tired West In­dies all-rounder De­an­dra Dot­tin who was forced out of the tour­na­ment through in­jury, could on­ly muster 64 off 15.1 overs in re­ply.

Num­ber six Day­alan Hemalatha pro­duced a de­fi­ant un­beat­en 29 from 23 balls to be on­ly one of two play­ers in dou­ble fig­ures – the oth­er be­ing num­ber 11 Mon­i­ca Pa­tel with 10.

The dam­age was done by left-arm spin­ner Sai­ka Ishaque who snapped up four for 11 while new-ball seam­er Nat Sciv­er-Brunt (2-5) and leg-spin­ner Kerr (2-12) sup­port­ed with two wick­ets apiece.

Sent in at the DY Patil Sports Acad­e­my, Mum­bai lost Yasti­ka Bha­tia cheap­ly for one in the third over be­fore the 24-year-old Matthews led her side’s res­cue ef­forts in a 54-run, sec­ond wick­et stand with Sciv­er-Brunt who made an 18-ball 23.

Both fell in suc­ces­sive overs, Matthews fol­low­ing Sciv­er-Brunt at the end of the 10th af­ter lash­ing three fours and four six­es – bowled miss­ing a cut at off-break bowler Ash­leigh Gard­ner.

Her dis­missal paved the way for Kaur and Kerr to dom­i­nate the in­nings, how­ev­er. The 33-year-old Kaur blast­ed 14 fours en route to her fastest ever T20 fifty, the right-han­der putting on 89 for the fourth wick­et with Kerr, who then added a fur­ther 35 for the fifth with Poo­ja Vas­trakar (15), while count­ing half-dozen fours and a six.

Gi­ants’ re­ply was ham­pered from ear­ly when Beth Mooney hob­bled off in­jured in the first over be­fore she had scored and once the in­nings plunged to 23 for sev­en in the eighth over, the run chase was ef­fec­tive­ly over.

The tour­na­ment is the women’s ver­sion of the In­di­an Pre­mier League.

CMC