The Women’s Premier League begins as the Mumbai Indians beat the Gujarat Giants by 143 runs and Beth Mooney is injured

Beth Mooney, fresh from her World Cup heroics, has been brought down to earth after sustaining an injury during a disastrous 143-round loss for her side the Gujarat Giants in the opening game of India’s new Women’s Premier League.

The Australia opener, in her first major captaincy role, said she was looking forward to the challenge of starting the lucrative new, potentially game-changing league at Mumbai’s DY Patil Stadium on Saturday.

But it all went awry for the batting champion, player of the match in last Sunday’s T20 World Championship final, and her expensively assembled team as Mooney called on Indians from Mumbai to bat and watched them score a huge total of 5-207.

The left-hander, who led the massive chase, then had to face just four balls before retiring injured without scoring after apparently injuring her left knee while running when she turned.

It was just the beginning of a disastrous innings for the Giants as they surrendered for 64 from just 15.1 overs.

There is now a big question mark over whether Mooney will be fit to play Sunday’s second game against a UP Warriorz team led by her opening Australian partner Alyssa Healy.

The Giants have invested heavily in Australian power, signing Rachael Haynes as coach, Mooney as captain and star batter for $350,000 and all-rounder Ash Gardner as jointly most expensive overseas recruit for $558,000.

Georgia Wareham, who, like Mooney and Gardner, played on Australia’s winning side in last weekend’s T20 World Cup final win in Cape Town in Cape Town, and Annabel Sutherland made up the Giants’ strong Australian quartet.

But the three bowlers were all carted around and conceded 100 runs from 10 overs between them, with Gardner taking 1-38 of four, Wareham 1-30 of three and Sutherland 0-32 of three.

The hard-hitting Gardner also failed with the bat and was caught at the slip for a golden duck.