🏏WPL 2024: Match 1: Mumbai Indians W vs Delhi Capitals W🏏

🏏WPL 2024: Match 1: Mumbai Indians Women vs Delhi Capitals Women, at Bengaluru on 23 February 2024 at 7:30 PM🏏

Welcome to Women's Premier League 2024

Seasoned Mumbai Indians set sights on title defence.

"Today I know I know what it feels like to win a trophy", said Harmanpreet Kaur after helming Mumbai Indians to the inaugural Women's Premier League title. This year will be another first, wherein she'll experience the pressures of being defending champions. History has it that pressure and expectations often bring out the best in her, and Harmanpreet's challenge this WPL will be to get the same out of her team as well.

Diving into the unknown, with a very short turnaround time, Mumbai took everyone by surprise with their five-match winning streak to begin the competition. They brought a contrast to the way the men's team operate usually as a slow starters, but lived up to the rich legacy that they established over the years. MI's squad in the WPL was built around proven international allrounders, each of whom played their part to perfection. With their winning core still intact, and in form, can MI make it two in two?

Where did they finish last season: Winners. A five-match winning streak was halted, sending them through to the Eliminator but MI became the inaugural champions by beating Delhi Capitals in the final

Mumbai Indians Women vs Delhi Capitals Women Pitch Report

The pitch report for the MI vs DC match will be broadcast live before Harmanpreet Kaur and Meg Lanning walk out for the toss. Generally, the wicket in Bengaluru is batting-friendly. It should not be a surprise if WPL 2024 begins with a run-fest.

Mumbai Indians Women vs Delhi Capitals Women Weather Forecast

The weather in Bengaluru will be clear, with periodic clouds during the match time. There is a 0% chance of rain, with the humidity levels expected to be in the range of 44%. The temperature will hover around 27 degrees Celsius during the match hours.

Mumbai Indians Women vs Delhi Capitals Women Match Prediction

The team that bats second will have a slight upper hand in this WPL 2024 contest. Both MI and DC are pretty evenly matched on paper. Hence, it is quite difficult to predict a winner, but considering that MI won two of their three matches against DC last season, Harmanpreet Kaur's team will start as favorites to win.

Can Delhi Capitals live up to potential this time?

Arguably the best team of last season, although not the winners, Delhi Capitals are set to enter WPL 2024 with the most complete squad yet again. In terms of balance, they have all bases covered - with power and depth in batting, arguably the finest wicketkeeper in the competition, variety in the bowling attack and an incredibly successful captain at the helm of affairs. Most importantly, they are likely to have experienced international players running through their XI, and ample to give cover on the bench.

On paper, and in execution, Delhi Capitals were the best side through the group stages last year. With the inclusion of Australian all-rounder Annabel Sutherland, in this season, they have only beefed up their chances. Moreover the veteran leggie Poonam Yadav's terrific form in domestic competitions in the ongoing season bodes well for their spin department.

With a strong Indian core and some of the finest foreign players in world cricket in their ranks, they should be targeting nothing but a title win.

Where did they finish last season?

Delhi Capitals topped the group stage with six wins in eight games. However, they lost the final to Mumbai Indians

What did Delhi Capitals Women try to address in the mini-auction?

To begin with, there weren't any gaps that the last year's runner-up had to fill. Delhi Capitals spent a largely quiet evening at the WPL auction table for this season. Having released only three players, including the USA international left-arm pacer Tara Norris, there weren't too many spots to fill. With only Rs 2.25 Crore to spend, the second least among all teams, they kept their focus on the big buy - Annabel Sutherland - and went to the limit spending Rs 2 Crore on her. With it, they added muscle to their pace department as well as batting.

Other than that, there were just a couple of light purchases, of Rs 10 lakh each. Aparna Mondal, the Bengal wicketkeeper, who was released ahead of the auction was bought back for her base price. Ashwani Kumari, another all-rounder released by Gujarat Giants, was also snapped for the base price.

Player to watch: Amandeep Kaur

The Mumbai think-tank is known for their shrewd picks and this one, at base price of INR 10 Lakh, was an absolute steal. Haryana's Amandeep Kaur is the only left-arm wrist-spinner in the competition who bowls "finger spin and wrist spin with equal control". The 21-year-old Amandeep is coming off a decent domestic run where she picked up 9 wickets in the Senior Women's T20 Trophy at an average of 10.77 and economy of 4.61 that led to her selection in the Senior Women's Inter-Zonal T20 Trophy. In the U23 Women's T20 Trophy that followed, Amandeep was the third-best wicket-taker with 15 scalps in seven games at an average of 7.8 and economy 4.33.

Player to watch: Annabel Sutherland

Interestingly, last year's wooden spoon holders dropped Annabel Sutherland, one of the finest all-rounders in the women's game currently from their roster. Not that she had much going for her last season, scoring only 28 runs in four innings and conceding at an economy rate of 11.52 with the ball. However, given her natural abilities and improved showing over the last one year raised her stocks and led to a bidding war at the auction. Delhi Capitals went all out to get the services of the Australia and strengthened its pace bowling department as well as the middle order. With concerns over Marizanne Kapp's availability, her role with both bat and ball will be crucial, especially in the Bangalore leg of WPL 2024.

Mumbai Indians Women:

Injuries and availability: A couple of player from other franchises pulled out of WPL 2024 due to its [near] clash with England's bilateral tour of New Zealand starting two days after the WPL final on March 17. England's vice-captain Nat Sciver-Brunt however opted to not be considered for selection for the first three of the five-match T20I series.

She is likely to be available for the entirety of the WPL. Same is expected of New Zealand's Amelia Kerr. MI's other English recruit, Issy Wong, wasn't picked in either of the two white-ball formats and therefore remains available.

Best XI: Hayley Mathews, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Amelia Kerr, Amanjot Kaur, Pooja Vastrakar, Izzy Wong/Shabnim Ismail, Jintimani Kalita, Amandeep Kaur, Saika Ishaque

Delhi Capitals Women:

Injuries and availability: Marizanne Kapp was out due to an undisclosed illness from South Africa's last game - a one-off Test against South Africa. Cricbuzz understands that the nature of the injury wasn't serious, but it remains unknown whether she would be available for DC's opening game.

Best XI: Shafali Verma, Meg Lanning, Jemimah Rodrigues, Marizanne Kapp, Alice Capsey, Annabel Sutherland, Shikha Pandey, Taniyaa Bhatia, Radha Yadav, Minnu Mani/Poonam Yadav, Titas Sadhu

Squads:

Mumbai Indians Women Squad: Hayley Matthews, Yastika Bhatia(w), Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Amelia Kerr, Amanjot Kaur, Pooja Vastrakar, Shabnim Ismail, Jintimani Kalita, Amandeep Kaur, Saika Ishaque, Chloe Tryon, Humaira Kazi, Issy Wong, Priyanka Bala, S Sajana, Keerthana Balakrishnan, Fatima Jaffer

Delhi Capitals Women Squad: Shafali Verma, Meg Lanning(c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Marizanne Kapp, Alice Capsey, Annabel Sutherland, Shikha Pandey, Taniya Bhatia(w), Radha Yadav, Poonam Yadav, Titas Sadhu, Minnu Mani, Jess Jonassen, Laura Harris, Arundhati Reddy, Ashwani Kumari, Aparna Mondal, Sneha Deepthi

Match: MIW vs DCW, 1st Match, Womens Premier League 2024

Date: Saturday, February 23, 2024

Time: 7:30 PM 

Venue: M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru

Umpires: Abhijit Bengeri, Vrinda Rathi

Third Umpire: Pashchim Pathak

Match Referee: GS Lakshmi