WPL: Mumbai Indians will take on Royal Challengers Bangalore in an eliminator match in Delhi: RCB opt to bat
WPL: Mumbai Indians will face Royal Challengers Bangalore in the eliminator match which will be held today at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi as part of the Women’s Premier League. The match will start at 7.30 pm. Royal Challengers Bangalore Women have won the toss and have opted to bat.
“If we could do exactly the same, we’d be pretty happy with that.” Luke Williams, the RCB head coach, knows their re-match against Mumbai Indians in the WPL 2024 Eliminator on Friday (March 15) won’t be as easy.
Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur’s whirlwind 95* had already put Mumbai in the playoffs before the Ellyse Perry-led seven-wicket thrashing at the hands of Royal Challengers Bangalore earlier this week that cost them a direct seat in the tournament finale for a second successive year. Whilst remarkably led by their in-form captain, Mumbai, as a team, have not enjoyed that dominant a run this season – their five victories interspersed by three comprehensive losses.
But a hurt MI unit can be a different beast altogether. Ask UP Warriorz, who inflicted a five-wicket defeat to similarly dent MI’s direct qualification berth last year only to be completely outplayed in the subsequent Eliminator.
“Don’t you think history is repeating itself?” batting coach Devieka Palshikaar quipped on the eve of the game. The Mumbai camp is seeing this as a good omen, hoping to confront RCB with the allround might they’re known for, and showcase their bouncebackability to make the final showdown, co-incidentally against Delhi Capitals once more.
However, this isn’t the RCB of last year that lost five on the trot to be practically out of the knockouts race even before they could find their feet in the competition. The reformed and refurbished Smriti Mandhana-led outfit has shown pluck on the field and been much calmer off it. Unlike last year, RCB have had different contributors stepping up on different occasions to help the team redeem itself – be it Asha Sobhana’s fifer on the opening night or Mandhana’s roaring return to form; be it young Richa Ghosh coming of age or the experienced Perry rewinding the clock.
A couple of close games going their way could have made life easier, and less heartbreaking. But, that they remained incharge of their fate till the end was a big shot in the arm ahead of the “virtual quarterfinal” RCB treated their final league game against MI as. That said, RCB are cognizant of the challenge at hand now – of downing the reigning champions again before they can think of the final hurdle – and the fact that they’ve admittedly been nowhere near perfect thus far. On Friday, anything less will not fly.
If we could do exactly the same, we’d be pretty happy with that.” Luke Williams, the RCB head coach, knows their re-match against Mumbai Indians in the WPL 2024 Eliminator on Friday (March 15) won’t be as easy.
Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur’s whirlwind 95* had already put Mumbai in the playoffs before the Ellyse Perry-led seven-wicket thrashing at the hands of Royal Challengers Bangalore earlier this week that cost them a direct seat in the tournament finale for a second successive year. Whilst remarkably led by their in-form captain, Mumbai, as a team, have not enjoyed that dominant a run this season – their five victories interspersed by three comprehensive losses.
But a hurt MI unit can be a different beast altogether. Ask UP Warriorz, who inflicted a five-wicket defeat to similarly dent MI’s direct qualification berth last year only to be completely outplayed in the subsequent Eliminator.
“Don’t you think history is repeating itself?” batting coach Devieka Palshikaar quipped on the eve of the game. The Mumbai camp is seeing this as a good omen, hoping to confront RCB with the allround might they’re known for, and showcase their bouncebackability to make the final showdown, co-incidentally against Delhi Capitals once more.
However, this isn’t the RCB of last year that lost five on the trot to be practically out of the knockouts race even before they could find their feet in the competition. The reformed and refurbished Smriti Mandhana-led outfit has shown pluck on the field and been much calmer off it. Unlike last year, RCB have had different contributors stepping up on different occasions to help the team redeem itself – be it Asha Sobhana’s fifer on the opening night or Mandhana’s roaring return to form; be it young Richa Ghosh coming of age or the experienced Perry rewinding the clock.
A couple of close games going their way could have made life easier, and less heartbreaking. But, that they remained incharge of their fate till the end was a big shot in the arm ahead of the “virtual quarterfinal” RCB treated their final league game against MI as. That said, RCB are cognizant of the challenge at hand now – of downing the reigning champions again before they can think of the final hurdle – and the fact that they’ve admittedly been nowhere near perfect thus far. On Friday, anything less will not fly.
Squads:
Mumbai Indians Women Squad: Hayley Matthews, S Sajana, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Amelia Kerr, Amanjot Kaur, Pooja Vastrakar, Humaira Kazi, Priyanka Bala(w), Shabnim Ismail, Saika Ishaque, Chloe Tryon, Fatima Jaffer, Keerthana Balakrishnan, Issy Wong, Yastika Bhatia, Jintimani Kalita, Amandeep Kaur
Royal Challengers Bangalore Women Squad: Smriti Mandhana(c), Sophie Molineux, Ellyse Perry, Sophie Devine, Richa Ghosh(w), Georgia Wareham, Disha Kasat, Shreyanka Patil, Asha Sobhana, Shraddha Pokharkar, Renuka Thakur Singh, Simran Bahadur, Indrani Roy, Shubha Satheesh, Nadine de Klerk, Sabbhineni Meghana, Kate Cross, Ekta Bisht
