Mumbai Indians will inch closer to play-offs if they beat Gujarat Giants in their final league game of WPL 2026.
Nat Sciver-Brunt's first-ever ton of WPL history powers MI's 15-run victory against RCB
Skipper Ashleigh Gardner and Georgia Wareham starred with bat and ball as Gujarat Giants finally broke their jinx against defending champions Mumbai Indians with an 11-run victory to seal a spot in the Women's Premier League Eliminator, in Vadodara, on Friday.
Winless in the first three outings, the Warriorz opened their account on Thursday, beating defending champions Mumbai Indians by seven wickets, and they are set to face each other for the second time in three days.
MI have managed just two wins from five outings, while Delhi Capitals are last with three losses from four matches.
Nat Sciver-Brunt: Didn't want to replicate other players by getting out in 90s
Both teams will be hoping their key players step up as the league phase reaches a decisive stage.
Table-toppers Royal Challengers Bengaluru will look to make amends with the bat after two consecutive defeats and lock their berth in the final when they take on a depleted UP Warriorz in the Women's Premier League in Vadodara
Having made their best-ever start to a season, Gujarat Giants would back themselves to get past defending champions Mumbai Indians in the Women's Premier League (WPL) in Navi Mumbai on Tuesday.
UP Warriorz beat Mumbai Indians by 22 runs in WPL
In absence of Pooja, RCB handed the responsibility of bowling to new recruits -- England left-arm spinner Linsey Smith, Arundhati Reddy and de Klerk as they managed to keep the opponents to 154-6.
IMAGES from the WPL match played between Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Giants in Navi Mumbai on Tuesday.
Having retained the majority of their squad, MI will be the team to beat given their formidable batting, but Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Delhi Capitals will be out to spoil their party.
The franchise chose to retain only former Under-19 World Cup winner Shweta Sehrawat as part of a fresh approach for the upcoming season.
Smriti Mandhana achieved a career-best rating of 828 in the ICC Women's ODI Rankings for Batters.
The opener's efforts in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup helped Australia win the tournament for the first time.
Deepti jumps two places to 5th, Mandhana continues to hold top spot in ODI rankings
India's Deepti Sharma inched closer to the top spot after rising to second place in the latest ICC Women's T20I bowling rankings, while opener Smriti Mandhana slipped to the second position among batters.
Shubman Gill dominated with the bat in England, as he amassed a huge tally of 567 runs at an average of 94.50 in the three Tests played in July.
Meanwhile, England fast bowler Lauren Bell moved up two places to reach fourth in the rankings for bowlers after her three-wicket haul in the first T20I against India.
Nat Sciver-Brunt and Hayley Matthews carried Mumbai Indians to their second WPL final as their power-packed knocks laid the cornerstone for the team's 47-run win over Gujarat Giants in the Eliminator in Mumbai
Mumbai Indians will take confidence from their emphatic victory against Gujarat Giants in their penultimate league game on Monday.
Delhi Capitals produced a splendid bowling effort before their batters, led by Niki Prasad, survived some anxious moments to register a narrow two-wicket win over Mumbai Indians in a last-ball thriller in the Women's Premier League
Shafali Verma claimed a hat-trick for Haryana against Karnataka in the pre-quarterfinal of the Women's Under-23 One-Day Trophy in Guwahati.
West Indies edged out of Women's World Cup by 0.01 run-rate
Shafali returns to T20 side for England tour, fit-again Yastika also comes back
Delhi Capitals dished out an all-round effort to comfortably beat former champions Mumbai Indians by nine wickets
Rejuvenated by their thrilling super-over win over RCB, UP Warriorz will look to continue their momentum when they take on an upbeat Mumbai Indians in the Women's Premier League match in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
Having set the pace with emphatic back-to-back victories, defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru will be eyeing a hat-trick of sorts against star-studded Mumbai Indians in the WPL match at home on Friday.
Sciver-Brunt smashed a 39-ball 57, her second consecutive half-century, after taking two wickets for 26, as MI first bowled out GG for a modest 120 and then chased down the target, scoring 122 for 5 with 3.5 overs to spare.
Powered by the all-round brilliance of Nat Sciver-Brunt and Hayley Matthews, Mumbai Indians head into the Women's Premier League final as favorites to claim their second title, while Delhi Capitals hope to break their title jinx in what promises to be a thrilling showdown in Mumbai on Saturday.
Batting first, RCB rode on skipper Smriti Mandhana's 37-ball 53 and useful contributions from Ellyse Perry (49 off 38 balls), Richa Ghosh (36 off 22) and Georgia Wareham (31 off 10) to post a commanding 199 for three.
PHOTOS from the Women's Premier League match played between MI and UP Warriorz in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
UP Warriorz's 12 runs win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru knocked the defending champions out from the race to the play-offs on Saturday, confirming qualification for Delhi Capitals, Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Giants in the process.
Star opener Smriti Mandhana, wicketkeeper-batter Richa Ghosh and all-rounder Deepti Sharma were on Saturday named in the ICC Women's T20I Team of Year 2024.
Captain Nigar Sultana top-scored for Bangladesh with a 44-ball 39 but she did not get enough support from her batting colleagues.
The inaugural edition's winner Mumbai Indians will bank on their core group of players while two-time finalists Delhi Capitals will expect fireworks from Shafali Verma when they face-off in the second game of the Women's Premier League here on Saturday. The finalists of the first WPL in 2023, both Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals made it to the knockouts in the second edition last year but lost to the eventual champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the eliminator and the final respectively. Those defeats were certainly not reflective of how well MI and DC had fared until the knockouts stage, with Harmanpreet Kaur's side finishing second in the points table with five wins in eight matches and Meg Lanning's team topping it with six wins in as many outings. The winners of WPL 2023, Mumbai Indians tend to lean on their core group of players both overseas and Indian and a similar approach can be expected this year, with only a few changes taking place in terms of squad composition. India pacer Pooja Vastrakar, who was grappling with an unspecified injury, was ruled out of the competition and has been replaced by slow left-arm orthodox bowler Parunika Sisodia, who was one of the main performers in India's title-winning campaign in the U-19 Women's T20 World Cup recently. Mumbai Indians have let go of England's Issy Wong, who took the first-ever WPL hat-trick in 2023, after the player lost form and the franchise found the leader of their attack in South Africa's Shabnim Ismail. Among domestic talents, another member of the U-19 T20 World Cup winning squad G Kamalini would be one to watch out for, having finished as the third highest scorer in the competition with 143 runs in seven matches. Apart from a strong leader in Harmanpreet, MI have strong figures from other international sides such as Nat Sciver-Brunt (England), Hayley Matthews (West Indies), Amelia Kerr (New Zealand), as well as South Africans Nadine de Klerk, Shabnim Ismail and Chloe Tryon. While Yastika Bhatia is MI's No 1 wicketkeeper-batter, other Indian players in Saika Ishaque, Sajana Sajeevan, uncapped Akshita Maheshwari and Amanjot Kaur will be expected to play their roles to perfection. On their part, Delhi Capitals will be keen to do one better after finishing as runner-up for two times in a row ever since the competition began. One of the most consistent teams in the competition, the Lanning-led Delhi have strong talent base across departments but the key will be to deliver in crucial matches. All eyes will be on the explosive Indian batter Shafali who has responded to her exclusion from the Indian side with runs in domestic cricket. She forms a lethal opening pair with Lanning at the top, while the likes of Australia's Annabel Sutherland, England's Alice Capsey and India's Jemimah Rodrigues form the core of their middle order. All-rounder Sutherland will hope to draw inspiration from her recent success of having struck 163 in the only Test of the women's Ashes followed by winning the highest individual honour in Australian cricket. While Delhi boasts of three wicketkeeper-batters in India's Taniyaa Bhatia, Nandini Kashyap and Scotland's Sarah Bryce, their bowling looks settled with Marizanne Kapp as the leader of the attack, backed by Australia's Jess Jonassen, India's Radha Yadav and Shikha Pandey as well as Titas Sadhu.
India's Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma have retained their third positions in the latest ICC Women's T20I batter and bowlers' rankings respectively, released on Tuesday.
Captain Hayley Matthews and her opening partner Qiana Joseph struck fine half centuries as the West Indies registered a thumping six-wicket win over England to qualify for the semifinals of the Women's T20 World Cup in Dubai on Tuesday.
Mumbai Indians head coach Charlotte Edwards said the early wickets of Delhi Capitals skipper Meg Lanning and opener Shafali Verma helped her team win the Women's Premier League final in Mumbai on Saturday.
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