NEW DELHI: Grace Harris and Tahlia McGrath hit crucial half-centuries while Sophie Ecclestone held her nerves in a tense finish as UP Warriorz edged Gujarat Giants by three wickets in a last-over thriller in Women’s Premier League match on Monday.
With the close win against the Giants at the Brabourne Stadium, Warriors also qualified for the playoffs, joining Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals. Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore have now been eliminated from the tournament.

Chasing a tricky 179, Warriors crossed the finish line with a ball to spare. Alyssa Healy and co. now have 4 wins in 7 games with a match to go in the group stage.

It was the crucial 78-run partnership for the fourth wicket between Tahlia and Grace that set the platform for the chase for Warriors after they got off to a horrendous start. Reeling at 39 for 3, Warriors lost their top three inside powerplay but then Tahlia and Grace together fought back to bring back the chase on track. The Aussie duo hit sublime half-centuries as they put on a terrific counterattack against the Giants bowlers.

While Tahlia hit 38-ball 57, Grace set the stage on fire with a 41-ball 72 before getting out in the penultimate over. Ecclestone (19 not out) then finished the job for the Warriorz in the final over.
Grace smashed the Giants attack to smithereens, hitting seven fours and four maximums in the chase of the Giants’ 178/6. When she departed at 172, caught by Kim Garth of Harleen Deol, there were still seven runs to be scored for victory.
There were a few nervous moments when Simran Shaikh departed and it became 177/7 for the Warriorz. Two runs of the last two deliveries can always be a tricky, but Ecclestone swept a Sneh Rana delivery to a boundary to ensure the win.
Grace was involved in two productive partnerships, with countrymate McGrath and Sophie Ecclestone. While Graces’ stand with McGrath was worth 78, with Sophie it fetched 42 runs and it insured an easy passage into the knockouts with just one balls to spare.
The partnership between Grace and Tahlia had laid a solid foundation and the former continued even after her country-mate departed at 117/4.
Grace, who had scored an unbeaten 59 the last time the teams had met at the DY Patil Stadium and ensured a thrilling victory for the Warriorz with just one ball to spare, played with such ferocity, it made the Giants bowlers look mere pedestrians.
All this despite the UP Warriorz being off to a rank bad start on a pitch that offered good bounce and carry. The team was down in the dumps at 3/39 before Grace and Tahlia came together to turn the tables on the Giants.
Skipper Alyssa Healy (12) went early after giving indication she meant business.
Young Giants medium-pacer Monica Patel took the prized scalp in just the second over of the innings after being dispatched for consecutive boundaries by the Australian.
Monika was given a pep talk by team-mates, and the result was the big wicket two deliveries later. The left-armer kept a back-of-length delivery on middle and leg stump that bounced a bit extra and Healy committed herself to a pull shot slightly early, getting an edge which flew to Harleen Deol at deep deep square leg.
The third over saw the Warriorz lose their second key batter in Kiran Navgire with Australian right-arm quick Kim Garth dismissing the quick for just four and reducing the Warriorz to 2/19.
To add to their woes, left-arm spinner Tanuja Kanwar got Devika Vaidya caught behind the stumps by Sushma Verma in the fifth over. Devika aimlessly raced down the track to flick the ball only to get a feather touch which flew to the keeper.
Earlier, a brilliant 93-run partnership between Dayalan Hemalatha (57 off 33 balls) and the second costliest player Ashleigh Gardner (60 off 39 balls) helped Gujarat Giants post 178/6 in their do-or-die clash.
The authority and attacking ways with which the duo played indicated they were on a mission, given the do-or-die nature of the contest as the tournament enters its business end.
By the time the partnership ended, with Hemalatha dismissed by Parshavi Chopra in the 17th over with the team total on 143, the stand had put the team on course for a competitive total.
South African opener Laura Wolvaardt and Sophia Dunkley went about their task of scoring runs in powerplay with a lot of urgency. Runs flowed freely while the two batting stalwarts were at the crease, with Wolvaardt smacking a fine boundary off just the third ball of the opening over bowled by left-arm pacer Anjali Sarvani.
The 23-year-old used the width on offer to steer it past backward point, making her intentions clear. Just two overs into the match and Gujarat Giants were in overdrive, with the team having scored 26 runs.
The powerful six by the South African off a length delivery outside off stump from left-arm India spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad in the second over had class and power written all over it.
Soon England batter Dunkley took charge, giving a further fillip to the scoring rate.
(With inputs from PTI)

Air India Ltd. is in talks with banks to help fund its recently announced record aircraft order, benefitting from the support of new owner Tata Sons Ltd., the carrier’s chief executive officer said.
“We have the backing of Tata Sons, so there is financing available for these aircraft,” CEO Campbell Wilson said in an interview with Bloomberg News on the sidelines of the CAPA India Aviation Summit in New Delhi on Monday. “We have already made some downpayments for these aircraft from our internal funds.”

Campbell Wilson in New Delhi on March 20.
Air India has placed an order of 470 aircraft from both Boeing Co. and Airbus SE, with deliveries due to start from the end of this year. Discounts are common for such large purchases.
The formerly state-run carrier will use cash, shareholder equity, and sale and leaseback of aircraft to help fund the order, Wilson said last month. With the fleet expansion, Air India is seeking to take on the likes of Emirates and Qatar Airways, which dominate lucrative routes from India to the US and Europe through their hubs in Doha and Dubai.

Wilson didn’t say which banks Air India is talking to.
India has been quicker than most other nations to get back to pre-Covid levels of air traffic, aided by a strong local market and growing middle class. Domestic air traffic is expected to rise 20% to 160 million passengers in the year through March 2024, and the nation’s carriers may operate a fleet of 1,400 jets by 2030, according to Sydney-based CAPA Centre for Aviation.
India plans to spend about 980 billion rupees ($12 billion) over the next two years on airports, including new terminals and the renovation of existing facilities to meet surging demand. A lot of that growth may come from smaller cities where air travel penetration is low.
“India over the last few decades has been punching below its weight,” said Subhas Menon, director general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines. “The government is doing what is natural, to build up potential as an aviation hub.”
Air India is preparing to integrate Vistara, a joint venture between Singapore Airlines Ltd. and Tata Group, to form a single, full-service carrier. The airline is spending $400 million to upgrade its widebody planes, replacing all seats and in-flight entertainment systems with new products.
Tata bought Air India for $2.4 billion from the government in 2021. The high-profile privatization under Prime Minister Narendra Modi ended decades of attempts to sell the money-losing, debt-laden carrier, which had been kept alive on years of taxpayer bailouts.

NEW DELHI: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday called India vital to ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific after talks with his counterpart touching on shared concerns about China.
Speaking in New Delhi after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kishida laid out plans for billions of dollars in investments in infrastructure and other sectors across the region.
“I have described Japan‘s plan to develop a free and open Indo-Pacific. To achieve this, India is an indispensable partner,” Kishida said.
“Japan will strengthen coordination with the US, Australia, UK, Canada, Europe and elsewhere. Of course, India is indispensable.”
India, Japan, the United States and Australia make up the Quad alliance, which positions itself as a bulwark against China’s growing assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region under President Xi Jinping.
India’s relations with China nosedived after 20 Indian troops died in clashes with Chinese soldiers in 2020 in Eastern Ladakh.
In December Japan, officially pacifist since 1945, revamped its defence policy after warning that China, with which it has a fraught history, posed the “greatest security challenge ever”.
Japan is also boosting military spending and is carrying out more joint exercises with other countries, including India, which has also deepened defence cooperation with Western nations.
In June, Kishida had said Japan would help train 800 maritime security personnel and provide at least $2 billion to other countries to buy patrol boats and build up infrastructure as part of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) strategy.
Kishida said Monday that FOIP’s scope would expand to include new areas like climate change, cybersecurity and food security.
It would also direct public and private capital worth $75 billion towards Indo-Pacific infrastructure by 2030.
Kishida’s visit came less than a fortnight after Modi hosted his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese for talks that also covered worries about China.
Albanese, who is also forging closer ties with the United States and Britain under the separate so-called AUKUS alliance, is due to host all Quad leaders in May.
The Quad members deny hostile intentions and stress that they are not a military alliance, but China has described the grouping as an attempt to encircle it.
Kishida had been expected to press Modi to take a tougher line on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which India — a major buyer of Russian arms and oil — has refused to condemn.
There are fears that China may begin providing military assistance to Russia — despite denials from Beijing — and Xi was in Russia for talks with his “old friend” President Vladimir Putin on Monday.
Kishida said that there was a “lack of guiding perspective that is acceptable to all about what the international order should be.
“This was clearly demonstrated by the considerable discrepancies in the attitudes across various countries to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” he said in his speech.
He added that he had invited Modi and the leaders of other countries in the region — including South Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam — as well as Brazil to a G7 summit in May.
India currently holds the rotating presidency of the Group of 20, which also includes China and Russia.
G20 meetings in India this year have failed to agree joint common statements on the war because of differences over the year-old Ukraine conflict.
Modi and Kishida also discussed deeper cooperation on clean energy, digital trade and infrastructure.
In March 2022, in his first visit to India, Kishida said Japan would realise 5 trillion yen in public and private investment to India over the next five years.