🏏WPL 2023: UP Warriorz W vs Delhi Capitals W: Match 5: 7:30PM IST 🏏 - Page 2

7pm Toss time.

Healy, Warriorz captain: We will bowl tonight. Bit green here, we've gone with a solid bowling attack. We've made a rather large call, Grace Harris is sitting on the bench and Ismail is in. When you have great players, someone will have to miss out. We're going for impact-for-impact. The belief within the group is there. It will be a test against a quality Delhi side tonight."

Lanning, Capitals captain: "I don't care what we do first. The wicket will be good through the night. Wicket shows there might be some carry in it. Good for fast bowlers. Same team tonight. (Shafali and her partnership) Hopefully more of the same but its a new day. We've got a deep batting line up but we need to be switched on for the conditions and the players we've got against us tonight."

Shabnim Ismail gets her UP Warriorz cap in the pre-toss huddle. We'll soon find out who misses out. Think we'll see win toss, bowl first.... let's find out in a minute.

Teams:

Delhi Capitals Women (Playing XI): Meg Lanning(c), Shafali Verma, Marizanne Kapp, Jemimah Rodrigues, Alice Capsey, Jess Jonassen, Taniya Bhatia(w), Arundhati Reddy, Shikha Pandey, Radha Yadav, Tara Norris

UP Warriorz (Playing XI): Alyssa Healy(w/c), Shweta Sehrawat, Kiran Navgire, Tahlia McGrath, Deepti Sharma, Simran Shaikh, Devika Vaidya, Sophie Ecclestone, Shabnim Ismail, Anjali Sarvani, Rajeshwari Gayakwad

Thanks for the tag Raji

Ismail, Warriorz bowler: "Coming from a good World Cup and then the WPL....looking forward to playing today. (Missing out on first game) I've been playing for 16 years so not used to not playing. Happy we could go over the line the other day."

Pitch and Conditions: "We have had a change of pitch which makes one side 48 meters and 60 meters on the other side. Little bit of rain around, 28 degrees and a little bit of humidity. We are on a fresh pitch and the bowlers will have to work out on what they need to do. We have seen there has been a lot more swing here than at the Brabourne. The pitch was under covers for the last couple of hours and there's a bit of weatheraround. Lot of the wickets here have come off the fullish length as the bowlers are getting the ball up there and get batters to nick off. Normal average score is 180 but don't think the batters will have it all their way tonight," inform Julia Price and Kate Cross.

Jemimah Rodrigues: (Start has been..) Much better than what we expected. Even though this is a new franchise, the way we gelled in - the communication, running between the wickets - so many positives. One of the best things I loved about her - she's so calm. We know she's one of the greatest leaders we've ever seen. It just brings a sense of calmness in our team. Having Tara adds so much to our balance. She was nervous before the game, but it didn't look like that. We have a balanced bowling and batting. We have experience, we have youngsters coming in.

Shabnim Ismail: Coming from a good World Cup and heading straight into the WPL, really excited and looking forward to playing today. It is never nice (not to play), I have been playing for 16 years but as a senior player you have to suck it up and be here for the team and when I get an opportunity, just use it. She (Grace Harris) is a great player and she showed that in the first game, all kudos to her for playing a great knock and getting us over the line. We always have to try and dig ourselves out of the hole and that is exactly what the team did, we showed a lot of character in the first game and hopefully we can do the same today. I love the name of being the senior player and being one of the greatest players, but you obviously have to show a lot of character on and off the field, that is more important and off the field you have to show the youngsters how it is done. It is in my list (breaking the 130kph barrier) and hopefully I can get there soon. I am doing all the hard yards behind the scenes.

"Evening! Been windy since yesterday, rained a bit in the morning and then a faint drizzle in the evening, until about 15-20 mins ago. Can't see any delay in the proceedings in the middle though," pings Purnima, who's at the ground. "Shabnim Ismail is marking her run-up, so she's definitely playing and there's definite one change to UPZ's eleven," she also adds.

The WPL rolls on and we're back at the DY Patil where Delhi Capitals take on UP Warriorz. It is Meg Lanning v Alyssa Healy. Both teams come into this fixture on the back of contrasting wins; Delhi smashed Bangalore by 60 runs while the Warriorz won a nail-biter against Gujarat. Delhi has a very strong batting line-up and that was on display in their first game where they amassed 223 - the highest total till now. Lanning and Shafali complemented each other perfectly while Kapp and Jemimah provided the finishing touches. But they will be against the best spin attack in the competition, Deepti and Eccelestone are two of the best in the business and the Warriorz will be banking on the pair to deliver. It is going to be Delhi's batters v UP's spinners. Who is going to come out on top?

Under ten minutes to go. Crowd a tad less today. Today's game will mean we would've completed two matches each for every side. Here's how the points table looks currently.

Jigar: "That's one of the problems with having Foreigner as a captain. One slot is fixed and generally 2 other are un-droppable so more often than not teams end up leaving players like Haris. Have seen these things a lot in SRH when Warner/Williamson were not able to contribute with the bat " -- Good point, Jigar. Still early days though. Teams will figure it out. Hopefully it doesn't cost them a playoff/final spot though!
Anjan: "Dropping Grace is a disgraceful act!"

Neeraj Sahu: Huge huge call this. Grace Harris is on verge of being a crowd puller. Played an absolute blinder the other night vs GG and now dropped. Just Aussie think tank things. Always making bold decisions.