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 India pacer Pooja Vastrakar, who was grappling with an unspecified injury, was ruled out of the competition and has been replaced by slow left-arm orthodox bowler Parunika Sisodia, who was one of the main performers in India's title-winning campaign in the U-19 Women's T20 World Cup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.
Skipper Meg Lanning's blazing knock helped Australia reach a record total before Megan Schutt led a brilliant bowling performance to beat arch-rivals England by 57 runs in the final of the women's T20 tri-series.
Harmanpreet Kaur's quickfire fifty and Nat Sciver-Brunt's fine all-round showing lifted Mumbai Indians to their second Women's Premier League title.
Delhi Capitals will be aiming to claim the top spot, while UP Warriorz will be desperate to register their first victory of the season when the two sides face off in the Women's Premier League in Bengaluru on Saturday.
Australia recorded a comfortable seven-wicket victory over New Zealand after opener Meg Lanning smashed her way to a 104-ball 112 in their ICC Women's World Cup match in Cuttack.
Smriti Mandhana smashed a blistering 47-ball 81 to power reigning champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru to a resounding eight-wicket victory over Delhi Capitals
Smriti Mandhana, Ellyse Perry, Shafali Verma, Meg Lanning and Harmanpreet Kaur were some of the big names retained by their respective franchises for the next edition of the Women's Premier League.
An ecstatic Mumbai Indians skipper Harmanpreet Kaur credited her bowlers for robustly defending a modest target of 150 in the WPL 2025 final against Delhi Capitals.
Indian women's cricket team skipper Smriti Mandhana created history on Wednesday by smashing the fastest century in One-Day Internationals by an Indian woman cricketer.
Sri Lanka great Kumar Sangakkara has been named as the Leading Cricketer in the World in the 2015 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.
Shafali Verma and Jess Jonassen smashed half-centuries as Delhi Capitals handed Royal Challengers Bengaluru a fourth consecutive defeat with a commanding nine-wicket win.
Shafali Verma (44) and Jess Jonassen's (61 not out) fireworks underlined Delhi Capitals' complete domination as they crushed Gujarat Giants by six wickets.
IMAGES from the WPL match played between Delhi Capitals Women and UP Warriorz in Bengaluru 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
Delhi Capitals vice-captain Jemimah Rodrigues believes the long break between the last league match and the Women's Premier League final has revitalized the team and will work to their advantage in the title clash. The Capitals have qualified for their third straight WPL final after Mumbai Indians were defeated by Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the last league match at Mumbai on March 11.
Meg Lanning and Jemimah Rodrigues smashed commanding fifties as Delhi Capitals thrashed Mumbai Indians by 29 runs.
Lanning has led DC from the front, scoring 308 runs from eight innings, while South African all-rounder Marizanne Kapp and Australian left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen are the highest wicket-takers for the side with 11 scalps each.
The winners of the tournament will receive $2.34 million, more than double the $1 million awarded to Australia for winning the previous edition of the tournament in 2023.
'Reena stayed in the next building. We fell in love but had to meet secretly because her parents didn't approve of me.' 'I would always be afraid that her parents would get her married off to somebody else.'
Australia have now made it to the semi-finals of the global T20 tournament in all its nine editions held so far since 2009 in England.
IMAGES from the WPL opener between Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians played in Bengaluru on Friday
IMAGES from the WPL final between Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday
All-rounder Tahlia McGrath has been named vice-captain, with the decisions on both players ratified at a Cricket Australia (CA) meeting on Friday.
IMAGES from the WPL match between Delhi Capitals and UP Warriorz in New Delhi on Friday
Edulji identified spin bowling as one of India's key strengths, praising Deepti Sharma's consistent form since 2017 and her ability to hit in the final overs. She also mentioned the promising talent of Shreyanka Patil
There is a lot of merit in the argument to standardise the boundary size in women's and men's cricket, considering the players' increasing ability to clear the ropes
On the eve of the opener of the second Women's Premier League season, the Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals squads were in for a treat!
Need to maintain energy to secure maiden Test win over Australia, says Harmanpreet Kaur
Smriti said that the clash against Pakistan always brings out a lot of passionate response from the players. The arch-rival will lock horns in Dubai on October 6.
Bangladesh will take on Scotland in the tournament opener in an afternoon fixture followed by a clash between Asian teams Pakistan and Sri Lanka later in the day at Sharjah.
Over the last few years, the Ee Sala Cup Namde (The Cup is ours this time) slogan of Royal Challengers Bangalore has remained the pet troll of social media army. But not anymore after this Sunday!
The players' auction ahead of the 2024 edition of the Women's Premier League (WPL) will be held on December 9 in Mumbai, the BCCI announced on Friday.
Lord's, the 'home of cricket', will host its first-ever Women's Test between India and England in 2026, the ECB announced on Thursday.
At one stage, New Zealand and Royal Challengers Bangalore all-rounder Sophie Devine even made a plea for pushing back the boundary limits.
Double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, Commonwealth Games gold medallist Lakshya Sen, Tokyo Olympic B Sai Praneeth and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde will be in action later on Wednesdat.
Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth opened his campaign at the Thailand Masters badminton tournament with a straight game win over Chinese Taipei's Wang Tzu Wei in Bangkok on Wednesday.
Lanning feels the sport will be included someday in the future.
Images from the WPL 2024 match between Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday.
Mumbai Indians aim to cap their superb WPL season by defeating Meg Lanning's Delhi Capitals in the final of the inaugural edition of the T20 league on Sunday.
