Klinger pleased with Giants’ efforts but miffed with dropped catches as Mumbai Indians halt their winning streak.
Klinger rues dropped chances after GG’s defeat but lauds the effort.
Michael Klinger, the head coach of the Gujarat Giants (GG), acknowledged that it is “difficult” to give someone like Harmanpreet Kaur three lives, but he praised the team’s efforts despite a poor performance on the pitch during their Tuesday loss to the Mumbai Indians (MI) at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
GG’s efforts were a long cry from their excellent fielding performances in their previous two games, even aside from dropping Harmanpreet three times. A few misfields and overthrows added to their concerns as they fell to their first WPL 2026 loss.
“We fielded really well in the first couple of games. And probably in the first 14-15 overs we fielded quite well and then all those dropped catches came in the back end in the last five-six overs,” Klinger said at the post-match press conference.
“It’s difficult when you give a player as good as Harmanpreet three chances, but at the same time, the effort, I can’t say anything bad about our effort in the field, and our work with training.
“They’ve been working extremely hard with our fielding coach Sarah Taylor and all the other coaches. So certainly no issue with the effort. It’s difficult when you put good players down, catches down, and so it’s something we’ll keep working on. We’ve worked on [our fielding] really hard and we’ve had two good performances and probably one performance that’s not quite at our best.”
In the absence of all-rounder Anushka Sharma, who hurt her hand while fielding during their victory over Delhi Capitals, GG switched to batting first. When Sophie Devine was removed in the third over, Kanika Ahuja, who came in at No. 8 versus DC and was not given an opportunity to bat in their season opener, was dismissed at one down. Ahuja blasted 35 off 18 with four fours and two sixes as a result of it.
“We probably had a couple of options in that [No. 3] spot. Once we realised that Anushka was going to be unavailable for a game or two, and we felt Kanika had been training really well. [She’s] another left-hander up the top who can play pace and spin well, and I thought she played brilliantly today,” Klinger said.
“We spoke to her about playing some strong shots, not trying to over-hit the ball, and I felt she did that really well, both to pace and spin, hitting through and over the field brilliantly.
“She started so well and still had about 19 [17.2] overs left to bat, and I think there’s even a lot of upside there and she can get some even bigger scores for us if she gets that opportunity down the track.”