WPL 2023: Who is Saika Ishaque, the spinner who took Mumbai Indians home in campaign opener?

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The primary match of the inaugural Girls’s Premier League T20 was a reasonably one-sided affair with Mumbai Indians, taking part in of their dwelling floor, dominating Gujarat Giants in all three departments. After placing up a mammoth whole of 207/5, on the again of Harmanpreet Kaur, Hayley Matthews and Amelia Kerr’s swashbuckling performances, the Mumbai bowlers matched the tone of their batting counterparts to dismantle Gujarat Giants out and in. They had been bundled out for a paltry 64, permitting Mumbai to register themselves because the winners of the first-ever WPL match.

Whereas the fantastic Harmanpreet Kaur was the choose of the batters, a reasonably unknown commodity, Saika Ishaque led the bowling division to unleash carnage on the Gujarat line-up. Ishaque is a 27-year-old left-arm spinner from Bengal who began her childhood with the Kalighat Membership Girls. From there she rose up the ranks to symbolize the state workforce in each U-19 and U-23 tournaments. She has ever since been an integral a part of the senior Bengal state squad, frequently that includes within the Senior Girls’s ODI Championship. In 2021 and 2022, she represented India Girls-D and India Girls-A respectively and had just a few cameos.

Not simply her bowling, Ishaque additionally confirmed her batting expertise within the match in opposition to India C on twenty fourth December 2021, scoring a quick-gun unbeaten 24 with the assistance of 5 fours. In that whole match, she was dismissed simply as soon as, that too within the ultimate the place she acquired out for a golden duck. Coming again in 2022, she represented India A. She additionally acquired to symbolize the Trailblazers within the Girls’s T20 Problem sequence which gave her the chance to brush shoulders with the who’s who of worldwide girls’s cricket. Thus, earlier than coming into in the present day’s match in opposition to Gujarat Giants, she had a great quantity of expertise taking part in with the celebrities and subsequently, by no means appeared misplaced or nervous at any level throughout the recreation.

Ishaque claimed WPL’s first four-wicket haul

Enjoying within the inaugural match, Ishaque and her mates had the cushion of runs supplied by the batters that allowed them to play fearless cricket, going aggressive with out shying away from experimentation. Early into the sport, Gujarat Giants had a serious setback when skipper and key batter Beth Mooney twisted her ankle and needed to be carried out of the sector, thus rendering her unsure for the upcoming matches as nicely.

Nat-Sciver Brunt and Issy Wong then let themselves unfastened on the Giants’ batters to carry the highest order crumbling down. Giants had misplaced 3 early throughout the first 4 overs when Ishaque was launched by skipper Harmanpreet Kaur. She quickly struck as she disturbed the furnishings of Annabel Sutherland to ship her off at a person rating of 6. She continued her fiery spell and dismissed Georgia Wareham in her very subsequent over, decreasing Gujarat to 22/5.

She got here again within the thirteenth over to interrupt the longest partnership of the Gujarat innings between Dayaland Hemlata and Mansi Joshi, by trapping Joshi in entrance of the pads to reverse an on-field choice to carry the Giants all the way down to 49/8. After such a superb spell the place she claimed 3 wickets in trade for simply 11 runs, it was solely becoming that Ishaque might get the possibility to complete issues off in model. That is precisely what transpired as she clean-bowled Monica Patel to wrap up the Gujarat innings on the very first bowl of the sixteenth over itself.

Thus, a complete of 143 runs separated the winners from the second-best workforce within the inaugural match of the much-anticipated match. Whereas the batters positively performed their half to perfection, it was Saika Ishaque within the bowling division who ensured a fast downfall of the Giants.

Will probably be essential for Ishaque and his workforce to maintain this kind going, so as to not let the Mumbai juggernaut come to a halt.

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