🏏WPL 2025: Match 20 - RCB W vs MI W at Brabourne, 11/03/25🏏 - Page 15

Thank you, Raji, for the match information and tagging me.

Best wishes to both the teams, but a bit more for RCBW.

One final time in Lucknow for WPL 2025. Hosts UP Warriorz take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru. One team is out, the other is in a tight jostle to make the playoffs for a second year in a row. That they are the defending champions might put extra pressure on RCB. They have lost two matches more than Mumbai Indians and one more than Gujarat Giants might make it tricky for them. Sampath Bandurupalli has laid out the scenarios for RCB to qualify for the playoffs. UPW will be clad in pink and yellow for this clash on International Women's Day.

18:30 Local Time, 13:00 GMT: A win for the Gujarat Giants last night has put Royal Challengers Bengaluru in a precarious position - they not only have to win their remaining two games but have to win it by a big margin and hope a couple of other results go their way. The defending champions started their campaign with consecutive wins but lost all four games at home and are currently placed fourth. Will moving away from the Chinnaswamy bring back their luck? We'll find out.. UP Warriorz became the first team to be eliminated from WPL 2025. It has been a forgettable season. Deepti Sharma, who took over the captaincy reins, was the MVP last year but has been a shadow of herself and that has reflected on her side's performances. However they have one last opportunity to finish the season on a high and also take RCB down with them. And ICYMI, the last time these two teams met it was a tie and the Warriorz won the Super Over. Another Super Over tonight? Toss and teams coming up.. Stay tuned

Pitch and Conditions: "We are using pitch number 3 tonight. Let's get those dimensions - 51 and 59 meters square, straight hit is 66 meters. That is something for the fielding side to contend with. It is a surface that has been used before and it did seem to slightly help the spinners on that occasion. It looks nice and hard, it has been nicely rolled. It is a red-soil surface and that's the reason we saw the spinners have a field day. Even tonight we can expect the same thing to continue. The spinners have done well at this venue because they have bowled at the right speeds. The batters will aim for the shorter boundaries but that is where the opportunities are for the spinners. Kerr picked up a 5-fer in the previous game. We saw dew play a part and side's batting first will face a tricky situation about what would be a good total," reckon Natalie Germanos and WV Raman.

Smriti Mandhana: We would like to field first today. It was a good week off. We couldn't play the way we wanted to in Bengaluru. We had a good team bonding session. We have two changes - Charlie comes in for Danny, Meghna comes in for Ekta. We have played some good cricket in the tournament but it is in patches, but hopefully we can play a complete game tonight. We had a good chat about it, we were in a similar position in the last season and everyone has been calm and composed which is a good sign.

Deepti Sharma: Today is a special day. But there is disappointment that we are not going further in the tournament. We have two changes. We have picked our XIs according to the conditions and always tried to pick the best XI. Yes, obviously Super Over (last time they played RCB), we can never forget that game and that is a good memory to have coming into the game.

Teams:

UP Warriorz Women (Playing XI): Grace Harris, Georgia Voll, Kiran Navgire, Deepti Sharma(c), Chinelle Henry, Shweta Sehrawat, Poonam Khemnar, Uma Chetry(w), Sophie Ecclestone, Kranti Goud, Anjali Sarvani

Royal Challengers Bengaluru Women (Playing XI): Smriti Mandhana(c), Charlotte Dean, Ellyse Perry, Raghvi Bist, Richa Ghosh(w), Kanika Ahuja, Georgia Wareham, Kim Garth, Sneh Rana, Renuka Singh Thakur, Sabbhineni Meghana

Royal Challengers Bengaluru Women have won the toss and have opted to field

Grace Harris and Georgia Voll are at the crease. Grace Harris is on strike. Kim Garth will open the attack

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4

Kim Garth to Grace Harris, FOUR, back to back fours to start the game. Short and outside off, Harris fetches the pull and nails it in front of square on the leg-side. She rolled her wrists nicely over the shot and kept it along the ground

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4

Kim Garth to Grace Harris, FOUR, well, well! No fine leg in place and Harris had made up her mind before Garth even started her run-up. Shuffles a long way across, adjusts to the shortened length and laps it to the vacant region