🏏WPL 2026: Match 20: DC W vs UPW W at Vadodara on 01/02/26🏏 - Page 2

Thanks for the tag Soni!
this is a must win match for both the teams — Jo jeeta they get into the eliminators and the team which loses has to say the final goodbye for the season!

Best of luck to both the teams!

Meg Lanning has enjoyed more success as captain than what has come her way over the last three weeks in the yellow and purple. If UP Warriorz lose on Sunday, for the second season in a row, they will be ending the Women's Premier League season at the bottom of the table. If they win, they might still end up there.

But there is an extremely faint possibility - needing a run difference of around 156-plus (if they post 200) or chase the target in three overs - that they could just qualify for the Eliminator. And in that hope, they would look to take the field against Delhi Capitals, the same team that Lanning had led to direct finals in each of the three previous seasons.

For the first time, under a new leader, Capitals won't be sealing a direct spot for the final. Instead, they would be battling it out in the last league game, hoping not to be eliminated from the tournament. It's been a rocky campaign so far, with some moments of high, some individual brilliance, a new discovery, and some slippery moments.

The calculation for the Jemimah Rodrigues led side though, is fairly straightforward. Win, and seal a berth in the Eliminator against Gujarat Giants. Lose, and head back home. The practicality of the contest means that for all that is at stake, there will potentially be one team playing with all to lose. The only other team that is likely to have interest in this contest, and possibly cheering UPW on despite losing to them twice this season, would be Mumbai Indians, who will most likely to through if their arch-nemesis lose on Sunday.

There is a lot in the think-tank of Capitals that Lanning would be aware of. The reverse is also true, and Capitals would just hope to get the better of their former skipper.

Gujarat Giants secured a hard-fought win by 11 runs over Mumbai Indians on Friday (January 30) in Vadodara to confirm their place in the WPL 2026 playoffs. The Ashleigh Gardner-led side finished the league stage with 10 points, and they are guaranteed to finish second in the WPL 2026 points table. But despite losing their first-ever match against the Giants, the Mumbai Indians are still alive in the WPL 2026 playoffs race. However, their fate is not in their hands now. To finish in the top three and qualify for the WPL 2026 playoffs, Mumbai Indians will have to depend on the result of the last league match of WPL 2026, which will be played between Delhi Capitals and UP Warriorz in Vadodara

https://www.news18.com/cricket/how-can-mumbai-indians-delhi-capitals-and-up-warriorz-qualify-for-eliminator-of-wpl-2026-ws-no-9868913.html?utm_source=copy_share&utm_medium=clipboard&utm_campaign=clipnshare

Not even an hour has passed since we witnessed a memorable tennis final, where an energetic 22-year-old completed a career slam by defeating a veteran 16 years his senior. Now, thousands of miles west in Vadodara, it's time for a crucial cricket match. The focus shifts from Australian Open to an Australian cricket legend. Meg Lanning is up against her former WPL side, with everything on the line.

It's DC vs UPW tonight, but the result could even impact a third team. But before going any deeper, this is what today's teams need to do: DC must win, while UPW must conjure wizardry and perform a miracle. That third team, meanwhile, will hope UPW beat DC... but without any magic.

Mithali Raj says the Vadodara pitch looks like a good wicket to bat on. She calls it a typical black-soil pitch, which could have something for both batters and bowlers.

7pm Time for the toss. DC opt to bowl. Rodrigues feels the pitch "plays better" in the second innings. She says the team is motivated to win tonight. DC are unchanged. Rodrigues is happy to have kept things "really simple", and sounds confident ahead of a must-win match. UPW's Lanning, meanwhile, points out that multiple teams have won batting first. Her side wants to finish with a win. UPW make three changes: Giri, Dottin and Knott have been included tonight.

Delhi Capitals: Shafali Verma, Lizelle Lee (wk), Jemimah Rodrigues (capt), Laura Wolvaardt, Marizanne Kapp, Niki Prasad, Chinelle Henry, Minnu Mani, Sneh Rana, Shree Charani, Nandani Sharma

UP Warriorz: Meg Lanning (capt), Simran Shaikh, Harleen Deol, Deepti Sharma, Shipra Giri (wk), Deandra Dottin, Charli Knott, Sophie Ecclestone, Asha Sobhana, Shikha Pandey, Kranti Gaud

What do MI need to qualify for Eliminator of WPL 2026?

For Delhi Capitals, it's a knockout situation, while UP Warriorz need nothing short of a miracle.

WPL scenarios

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/what-does-mi-need-to-qualify-for-wpl-2026-eliminator-1521678

Meg Lanning: I think there's been a lot of teams winning that in first. The other night we got off to a reasonable start. We just couldn't finish it off. So there's some positives there. So hopefully we can put together the full 20 tonight. A little bit of both. Obviously, we still want to win the game. You know, everybody's very competitive and we want to get a win to finish, but we will give a couple of people opportunities tonight as well just to see what they've got, bring a bit of fresh energy to the team and hopefully it gets us the result. Yes. Shipra, Dottin and Knott come in for Shweta, Amy Jones and Chloe Tryon. So yeah, fingers crossed, that's the winning combination.

Jemimah Rodrigues: We will bowl first. I think the team's pretty motivated. As a captain, to be honest, it's an easy job to lead this team because they're making me feel a lot at home. But yeah, I think the energy, the intensity, and the way we play our cricket is going to stay the same and there's no more negotiable for that. To be honest, it's always there in the back of the mind but I think we play our best cricket when we keep things really simple, stuck to what's in our control, stuck to playing the best cricket we possibly can and I know on the day our team plays the best cricket, nobody can defeat us. Yeah, 100%. I think over the last few weeks, I feel like I've grown a lot more than I've ever grown in the years. But I think firstly, credit goes to my team, to the coach JV and our entire support staff and the players because they've released a lot of load off me. But at the same time, I think for me, every game has been such a big learning and I think that's going to help me so much more in my cricketing career here.

Delhi Capitals Women have won the toss and have opted to field