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.
A superb 84-ball 102 from skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and a splendid 6-52 from young pacer Kranti Goud helped India Women steer to a sensational 13-run win in the final ODI against England to clinch the three-match series 2-1 at Chester-le-Street, Durham, on Tuesday.
'A lot of girls played here for the first time. The excitement was quite high.'
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.
Mumbai Indians will take confidence from their emphatic victory against Gujarat Giants in their penultimate league game on Monday.
Melie Kerr made history on Tuesday by becoming the first Kiwi recipient of the prestigious Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy
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.
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.
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.
Shafali returns to T20 side for England tour, fit-again Yastika also comes back
Mandhana happy to score a ton in a format that 'is not a natural format for me.'
Taking a dig at the controversial run-out decisions that played a big role in her team's last-ball, two-wicket defeat to Delhi Capitals, Mumbai Indians coach Charlotte Edwards said it was "really hard" to comprehend such calls that affect the eventual outcome of the match.
Amanjot Kaur's superb all-round showing steered Mumbai Indians to a thrilling four-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
IMAGES from the WPL match played between Mumbai Indians and UP Warriorz on Thursday.
UP Warriorz will be looking to bounce back and avenge their earlier defeat when they take on a resurgent Gujarat Giants in a crucial return-leg Women's Premier League fixture in Lucknow on Monday.
Delhi Capitals dished out an all-round effort to comfortably beat former champions Mumbai Indians by nine wickets
IMAGES from the WPL match between Mumbai Indians and UP Warriorz in New Delhi on Thursday
MI will aim to seal their direct qualification to the final by finishing at the top when they face Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the final league match 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 witnessed some standout performances in the WPL final against Delhi Capitals as they were crowned inaugural champions.
struck 105 in the final match of the series against Australia in Perth and 54 in the first game of the ongoing T20I rubber against the West Indies in Mumbai to headline the latest rankings
IMAGES from the WPL opener between Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians played in Bengaluru on Friday
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.
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.
IMAGES from the WPL Eliminator played in New Delhi on Friday.
Spinner Deepti Sharma bagged her maiden five-wicket haul in Tests to put India in control on Day 2 of the one-off Test.
India rarely took the foot off the pedal on a batting-friendly surface, garnering nearly five runs per over.
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.
IMAGES from the WPL match played between RCB and Mumbai Indians in Mumbai on Monday.
Smriti Mandhana dropped a rung to fourth spot, while skipper Harmanpreet Kaur jumped two places to ninth position in the ICC Women's ODI batting rankings.
Ellyse Perry claimed a record six-wicket haul before smashing an unbeaten 40 to steer Royal Challengers Bangalore to an emphatic seven-wicket win.
Mumbai Indians came up with a dominant performance with both bat and ball to cruise to an emphatic seven-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore.
IMAGES from the Women's Premier League game in Bengaluru between Mumbai Indians and UP Warriorz on Wednesday
Somerset wicket-keeper James Rew, 19, won the Young Cricketer of the Year having scored more than 1,000 runs in Division One of the County Championship.
Royal Challengers Bangalore signed off the inaugural Women's Premier League with a loss as Mumbai Indians registered a four-wicket win.
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.
The auction began with a bang as Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) splurged Rs 3.40 crores
England beat India by four wickets in second T20I, win series
India failed miserably in all departments of the game as they suffered a comprehensive 38-run defeat against England in the first T20I of the three match series in Mumbai on Wednesday.