Meg Lanning’s 70 and disciplined bowling led UP Warriorz to a 22-run WPL victory.
UP Warriorz Champions
Is the throne starting to wobble? For the Mumbai Indians, the DY Patil Stadium usually feels like a fortress, but the UP Warriorz arrived with a battering ram in the form of Meg Lanning.
In a commanding 22-run victory, the Warriorz didn’t just beat the defending champions; they exposed the first real cracks in the Mumbai armor we’ve seen in the WPL 2026 season.
The Master and the Apprentice
After being sent in to bat, the Warriorz showcased a masterclass in T20 pacing. The 119-run partnership between Meg Lanning (70) and Phoebe Litchfield (61) was a study in contrasts.
While Lanning operated with the surgical precision of a grandmaster, finding pockets of space with wristy flicks, Litchfield provided the raw, youthful audacity that kept Mumbai’s world-class attack on the back foot.
Their synergy propelled the Warriorz to a daunting 187/8, a total that demands perfection from any chasing side.
The Illusion of the Recovery
Mumbai’s chase began with a stutter, but the game seemed to hang in the balance during a gritty 83-run stand between Amelia Kerr and Amanjot Kaur. However, this is where the Warriorz’s tactical brilliance shone.
Instead of searching desperately for wickets, Shikha Pandey and Deepti Sharma focused on “starving” the boundary.
Key Takeaways from the Warriorz’s Defense:
- Calculated Parsimony: Pandey and Sharma didn’t just bowl; they dictated where Mumbai could hit. By taking away the square-leg boundary, they forced the batters into lower-percentage shots.
- The Run-Rate Trap: Mumbai stayed in the hunt numerically, but the required rate climbed silently. By the time Kerr (49*) and Kaur (41) tried to explode, the geometry of the field was weighted against them.
- Timely Pressure: Every time a Mumbai batter found a rhythm, the Warriorz responded with a “quiet over,” effectively resetting the pressure.
The Tactical Misstep
The reality of this match was that Mumbai’s 83-run partnership might have actually been their undoing.
In a chase of 188, “playing it safe” to rebuild after early wickets is often a death sentence. By the time Mumbai reached the final stretch, they had wickets in hand but no time left on the clock.
They finished on 165/6—a respectable score that was never actually enough to win.
The Warriorz have sent a loud message to the rest of the league. If you allow Lanning to set the tempo and Deepti to squeeze the middle overs, even a champion’s pedigree won’t save you.