Vadodara, Feb 19, 2025, IANS

Vadodara, Feb 19 (IANS) Gujarat Giants head coach Michael Klinger admitted that tactical errors led his side to lose against Mumbai Indians in the WPL 2025. However, he commended the bowlers for keeping the team in the game for as long as possible. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led MI showcased a dominant performance in the field to complete a comfortable five-wicket win on Tuesday, helping them maintain their unbeaten run against Gujarat Giants (GG) with five wins out of five. The trio of Hayley Matthews (3-16), Amelia Kerr (2-22), and Natalie Sciver-Brunt (2-26) ensured Mumbai only had to get 121 for victory. MI bowler's superb display left GG with their backs firmly against the wall at 28/4 at the end of the powerplay. "The powerplay didn't go according to plan, did it? Losing four wickets, obviously Ash off the last ball of the power play, it's always tough to come back from that. We do bat pretty deep though, so probably from the end of the powerplay we did pretty well to get to 120. In saying that, a couple more lengthy partnerships could have been the difference to get us to 140-145 and I think we may have been in the game with that," Klinger said in a post-match press conference. MI run-chase was not without hiccups after making a solid start, as Hayley walked back for 17 in the fourth over, with MI reaching 37/1 in the powerplay. Later, Priya Mishra struck in her very first over to dismiss Yastika Bhatia. A big scalp followed in the very next over as Harmanpreet (4) was trapped in front by Kashvee Gautam, leaving MI at 55/3 after eight overs. But it was not enough for GG to save the match as Sciver-Brunt's 57 took MI home with 3.5 overs to spare. "But as you've seen here, it is difficult defending anything really, obviously, 120 is just not enough. But it does get very wet out there, and fielding becomes a little bit more difficult, and bowling becomes a little more difficult. But I thought our bowlers did a great job to give us a little bit of a sniff to win with about six or seven overs to go. "But it's always tough when you're defending a 120 score. It was more, not so much a mindset thing, probably just more a tactical strategy thing where maybe they could try to access different areas or look to target the other side, the shorter side. So in terms of their mindset, we're happy with them playing aggressive cricket. Maybe just tactically and strategically it can be a little bit better next time," he added. The match in Vadodara marked the end of Gujarat Giants' home leg. With only one win from three matches, they now head to Bengaluru for the next leg of the tournament to turn their fortunes around. "I would have loved to come out of here, obviously two in three games, but after losing the first one and winning the other night, it would have been nice to come out in front of our home crowd and win again and go to Bangalore with two wins," he admitted. "But we go there with one win, it's certainly one more than we had this time last year. "All it takes is to get on a bit of a roll of a couple of wins in a row and you're right up there in the top couple again. So we'll take some learnings from tonight, no doubt. But we've got six days off now to reset again for the Bangalore leg. So we're looking forward to that," said Klinger.