🏏WPL 2024: Match 7: RCB W vs Delhi Capitals W🏏

🏏WPL 2024: Match 7: RCB W vs Delhi Capitals W at Bengaluru on 29/02/2024 at 7:30 PM IST🏏

Today is  a special day, which comes once every 4 years.  29th of February 2024.

With two successive victories, Royal Challengers Bangalore have put behind the horrors of the previous season to start WPL 2024 on the right note. But they will face a big challenge in the form of Delhi Capitals when the two teams face off in the seventh match of the second edition of the competition at the Chinnaswamy stadium.

Both sides enter this game on the back of comfortable victories, which was achieved by taking advantage of favourable conditions bowling first to restrict oppositions to below-par totals and then chase them with ease. Will they be able to replicate that if they happen to bat first? Past experiences will help, with Royal Challengers and the Capitals also having batted first earlier in this competition and putting up competitive scores, although they had contrasting results.

The big guns have fired for both teams in their respective previous games, with Shafali Verma and Meg Lanning striking half-centuries against Warriorz while Smriti Mandhana, S Meghana and Ellyse Perry got amongst the runs against Gujarat Giants. Concerns, if any, will be Sophie Devine's recent form as she fell for single digit scores in the last two games and hasn't really been in the best touch with the bat barring the 70 she scored in the ODI against Pakistan in December.

When: Thursday, February 29 at 7:30 PM IST

Where: Chinnaswamy stadium, Bengaluru

What to expect: The wickets used for the first two games played quite well, with the toss factor not proving too important. But as the tournament progressed, bowling first has become an advantage with pitches being sluggish for the first half of the first innings before getting better for batting.

Team news:

Royal Challengers Bangalore: The Mandhana-led side kept the same eleven for the match against the Giants and are likely to stick to the combination that has won them two games.

Probable XI: Smriti Mandhana (c), Sophie Devine, S Meghana, Ellyse Perry, Richa Ghosh (wk), Sophie Molineux, Georgia Wareham, Shreyanka Patil, Simran Bahadur, S Asha, Renuka Thakur

Delhi Capitals: Lanning's team was unchanged in the last game and they too are likely to field the same eleven.

Probable XI: Meg Lanning (c), Shafali Verma, Alice Capsey, Jemimah Rodrigues, Marizanne Kapp, Annabel Sutherland, Arundhati Reddy, Minnu Mani, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Radha Yadav, Shikha Pandey

What they said:

"Wherever I've been playing, whether that's international cricket or in leagues, I'm probably better off bowling with the new ball...We have very good death bowlers, so that allows me to bowl upfront more with the new ball" - Marizanne Kapp, after bagging 3 for 5 against UPW.

Thank you for the tag Rajjo

Squads:

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

Royal Challengers Bangalore Women Squad: Smriti Mandhana(c), Sophie Devine, Sabbhineni Meghana, Ellyse Perry, Richa Ghosh(w), Georgia Wareham, Sophie Molineux, Shreyanka Patil, Simran Bahadur, Asha Sobhana, Renuka Thakur Singh, Indrani Roy, Shubha Satheesh, Shraddha Pokharkar, Disha Kasat, Nadine de Klerk, Kate Cross, Ekta Bisht

HEAD TO HEAD - LAST 2 MATCHES

DC Women won by 6 wickets (with 2 balls remaining)  14-Mar-2023

DC Women won by 60 runs  05-Mar-2023

Batters To Watch(recent stats)

Ellyse Perry,  RCB-W

10 M • 284 Runs • 40.57 Avg • 125.66 SR

Sophie Devine,  RCB-W

10 M • 273 Runs • 27.3 Avg • 165.45 SR

Meg Lanning,  DC-W

10 M • 355 Runs • 44.38 Avg • 130.03 SR

Alice Capsey,  DC-W

9 M • 234 Runs • 33.43 Avg • 150.96 SR

Bowlers To Watch(recent stats)

Asha Sobhana,  RCB-W

7 M • 10 Wkts • 7.38 Econ • 14.4 SR

Shreyanka Patil, RCB-W

9 M • 6 Wkts • 10.09 Econ • 23.5 SR

Marizanne Kapp,  DC-W

10 M • 13 Wkts • 5.18 Econ • 18.46 SR

Shikha Pandey,  DC-W

10 M • 10 Wkts • 6.74 Econ • 21 SR

Probable Best Batter of the Match

Delhi Capitals women’s skipper Meg Lanning could be the best batter in the fourth game of the WPL against Delhi Capitals. With a brilliant half-century in the last game, banning is coming off a good performance and will be high on confidence and take on the BAN-W bowlers.  She is currently the third-highest run-scorer in the tournament.

Probable Best Bowler of the Match

Bengaluru's Renuka Singh could be the best bowler of the game against Delhi Capitals. Singh is one of the prime bowlers in Bengaluru's team. She also performed well in their game against GG-W, where she picked two wickets and gave just 14 runs, which won her the Man of the Match award. She could surely trouble the DEL-W batters.

Today’s Match Prediction: Team bowling first to win the match