🏏 WPL 2024 : Match 9 : RCB W vs MI W at Bengaluru 🏏

🏏WPL 2024: Match 9: RCB W vs MI W at Bengalauru on 02/03/ 2024 at 7:30PM IST🏏

Match Preview 

In the ninth clash of the Women’s Premier League, Royal Challengers Bangalore will lock horns with reigning champions Mumbai Indians on March 2 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Chennai. Both sides are coming into the match on the back of having played three matches, winning two games each. While RCB have occupied the second position in the points table, MI sit at the third spot.  

Royal Challengers Bangalore have played three games so far in the ongoing season of the tournament. In these three clashes, Bangalore skipper Smriti Mandhana emerged on top of two toss wars. Talking about MI skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, she has also won two tosses in three matches in the season. In the next match, we feel Mandhana would get lucky in the toss and come on top over Kaur.  

Royal Challengers Bangalore kicked off their campaign on a triumphing note as they defeated UP Warriorz. Mandhana and Co. extended their tally to 2-0 by taking down Gujarat Giants in their next match. However, their winning streak came to a pause as they went down to Delhi Capitals Women in their recent match. 

Similarly, Mumbai Indians were 2-0 when UP Warriorz took them down in their last game. The forthcoming game is going to be a nail-biting thriller, as both sides have their advantages. While Mumbai are the reigning champion, Bangalore have the advantage of playing on the home ground.

Preview 

Royal Challengers Bangalore Women are set to play against Mumbai Indians Women in the ninth match of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2024 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The RCB-W will arrive at this fixture on the back of a tough loss against the DC-W, not being able to chase down a massive score on the board. Meanwhile, the MI-W suffered a big loss to the UPW, who chased down a par score against them with ease. 

Team News 

MI-W captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Shabnim Ismail are not confirmed to play in the upcoming match after they sat out of the previous match due to their respective niggles, while RCB-W’s Ellyse Perry is doubtful to play after she missed out previously due to illness. 

Pitch Report 

The pitches at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru have delivered some compelling cricket in the WPL 2024, with scores over 190 and below the 120 mark too. The average first-innings score at this venue in the WPL 2024 after seven matches is 148, which is something both Royal Challengers Bangalore Women and Mumbai Indians Women will be looking to get past, to set up a competitive contest this weekend. 

Team Analysis 

Royal Challengers Bangalore Women 

Despite RCB captain Smriti Mandhana's incredible batting efforts in pursuit of the 195-run target set by Delhi Capitals Women, the absence of Ellyse Perry was felt by the team. The RCB-W bowling department had a tough outing earlier in the match, except for a couple of wickets each from Sophie Devine and Nandine de Klerk. 

Probable Playing XI of Royal Challengers Bangalore Women 

Sophie Devine, Smriti Mandhana (c), Sabbhineni Meghana, Richa Ghosh (wk), Georgia Wareham, Nadine de Klerk, Simran Bahadur, Sophie Molineux, Shreyanka Patil, Asha Sobhana, Renuka Singh 

Mumbai Indians Women 

Hayley Matthews took charge of the Mumbai Indians Women's innings to help them post a competitive first innings score after the captain Harmanpreet Kaur sat out of the match against UP Warriorz due to a niggle. Although, the bowling effort from the MI-W was poor, with their star pacer Shabnim Ismail on the sidelines due to a niggle, which led to the opposition chasing down the score against them in a comfortable manner. 

Probable Playing XI of Mumbai Indians Women 

Hayley Matthews, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Nat Sciver-Brunt (c), Amelia Kerr, Pooja Vastrakar, Issy Wong, Sanjeevan Sanjana, Amanjot Kaur, Humaira Kazi, Sathyamoorthy Keerthan, Saika Ishaque 

Predicted Powerplay Score and Average First Inning Score 

The M. Chinnaswamy Stadium of Bengaluru is set to host the forthcoming clash between RCB-W and MI-W. The stadium has already hosted the first eight clashes of the WPL 2024 season and is set to host a total of 13 matches. The average first-inning score of the ground in previous fixtures of the season is 136. We expect the first-inning score to hover around 160-170 and powerplay to be around 50-55. 

Thank you, Parm for the thread and for tagging me.  

It's difficult to predict, so best wishes to both teams. 

Thanks for the tag Parm.

May the best team win.

Cheers..

The Women's cricket teams of Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians have played against each other twice before this encounter. Mumbai women won both these games. 

These are still early days in the competition. These teams have an identical record in their last three games in the tournament. They have played three games and have won two of them. However, RCB has a better net run rate even though both teams stand on a four-point exchange. The RCB women are going into this game after a defeat against Delhi Capitals women. They did win a couple of games played earlier, though. These two wins came against Gujarat and UP. This is the first time these two teams are playing against each other in WPL 2024.

Looking at the recent performances for the Royal Challengers Women, you will find Sophie Devine leading the batting charts. She has scored 296 runs from her last eleven innings with an average of 26.90. Ellyse Perry scored 284 runs from her previous ten appearances with a top average of 40.57. Asha Sobhana leads the bowling charge for RCB women with ten wickets from her last eight games. Shreyanka Patil has also picked up seven wickets from her previous ten games. These will be the go-to players for RCB Women in this game.

MUMBAI INDIANS WOMEN

The Mumbai Indians team has also made a decent start to their campaign in this year's WPL. They are currently in third place in the points table, with four points to their credit. They are not in the top two positions because they have a poorer net run rate. The MI Women also go into this game with a loss in their last effort. But they have also won the two games before that in this year's WPL. They lost their previous match in the competition against UP and have won the two games before that against Gujarat and Delhi.

Nat Sciver Brunt has led the Mumbai batting effort in the WPL. She has scored 392 runs from her last 13 innings with an average of 49.00. Harmanpreet Kaur has also scored 382 runs with an average of 47.75. These two will again lead the batting effort for MI women and the all-rounder Hayley Matthews. Amelia Kerr leads the bowling charts for Indians with 22 wickets from her last 13 innings with an average of 13.86. Issy Wong has also picked up 17 wickets from her previous eleven games. These are the top batters and bowlers for Indians in WPL.

RCBW VS MIW TOSS PREDICTION

We have seen seven women's domestic T20 games played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium from Bengaluru. The teams batting second and chasing a target have won five games. So, the skipper winning the toss here is likely to opt to field first.