Beth Mooney has crashed her way out of a personal drought - and buried a losing slump for her team - by racking up the highest score in the 2024 Women's Premier League in India to help earn Gujarat Giants break their season's duck.
Captain Mooney, the world's top-ranked international T20 batter, had only scraped together 60 runs in her previous four matches combined this season, one of the key reasons the Lucknow-based Giants had crumbled to four straight losses.
But that all changed in New Delhi on Wednesday as Mooney went against the trend of run-chasing and took the gamble to bat first, even in the teeth of her run drought, against the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Her courage paid off handsomely as Mooney went through the 20 overs unbeaten on 85, while steering her side to the season's biggest total, 5-199.
The 30-year-old left-hander hit 12 fours and a six in her superb 51-ball WPL season's-best, and featured, largely as the junior partner, in a 140-run opening stand with South African Laura Wolvaardt (76 off 45 balls).
Gujarat's bowlers then restricted RCB to 7-180, always looking in control in their 19-run win, especially once her dangerous Aussie colleague Ellyse Perry was caught behind by wicketkeeper Mooney after her 24 off 23 balls.
There was a belated, blistering effort from another Australian international Georgia Wareham's 48 off 22 balls, but it was not enough to stop Mooney feeling both exhilarated and relieved after an end to her side's woeful start to the campaign.
"I'm just happy to finally contribute," said Mooney after collecting her first WPL player of the match award.
"It's been a pretty tough season and we've been on the wrong end in a lot of games, but I'm absolutely pumped for the girls. My job as leader is to lead from the front and I haven't quite nailed that yet, so it was nice to do so tonight.
"I'm very stoked to get on the board. I'm sure there were a few eyebrows raised when we won the toss and decided to bat, but we wanted to get ahead of the game as soon as possible."
Mooney's international teammate Ash Gardner, who made up for her first-ball duck with a fine return of 2-23 off her four overs, added: "There's plenty of emotions - we’ve been waiting for five games for this moment.
"We finally did it, so there’s a sigh of relief there. We played like we had nothing to lose. We knew we’d have to get 200 and most of the credit goes to both openers. It was one of the closest-to-perfect performances we’ve had."
