TACTICAL PREVIEW
Follow UsTwo games played in front of a packed house with no empty seats. Two final ball thrillers.
The second edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) has gotten off to a dream start, and both Delhi Capitals and UP Warriorz have played their part in ensuring the same.
But much to the dismay of both the franchises, the two teams have thus far ended up finding themselves on the wrong side of the result.
While the Capitals, in the curtain raiser, were undone by a stupendous final ball six from debutant Sajeevan Sajana, the Warriorz, on Saturday, fell short by just 2 runs chasing 158 against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
Monday’s clash, then, presents an opportunity for both these sides to get off the mark and get their campaigns underway.
It’s a pretty evenly poised contest on all fronts, but Delhi should fancy themselves more, considering they won each of the two head-to-head clashes last season.
Things to watch out for
Warriorz need runs from their top three
The UP Warriorz finished third in the inaugural edition of the WPL, and had a lot of things going for them. However, one area in which they noticeably lagged behind was runs from the top-order.
Last season, batting positions 1, 2 and 3 of the Warriorz accounted for just 397 runs at an average 19.00, which was the worst among all sides.
Ahead of the season, skipper Alyssa Healy admitted that the Warriorz, last season, were ‘saved by the middle-order’ a lot, indirectly stressing that the top-order needed to step up.
However, that did not happen in their first match of the season, with the top three accounting for 45 runs off 50 balls. Debutant Vrinda Dinesh (18 off 28) had a pretty rough first outing.
Vrinda, being a rookie, will understandably need time to hit the ground running, but the Warriorz will need both Healy and Tahlia McGrath to take some burden off the ever-reliable Grace Harris.
McGrath, who has been promoted to No.3 this season, had an outstanding WPL 2023 (302 runs @ 50.33), so the Warriorz will be pretty confident that she’ll start getting amongst the runs quickly. If skipper Healy can somehow find some consistency, that would go a long way in solving the side’s top-order woes.
Healy had a good WPL 2023 (253 runs @ 31.62), but, outside two 50+ scores, passed the 25-run mark only once in the remaining 7 innings.
Will Delhi learn from the ‘spin’ mistake they committed in the first game?
When it comes to the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Chinnaswamy might historically be a pretty bad venue for spinners, but that’s not been the case in WPL so far.
Across the first two games of this edition, spin has played a huge part. To the extent that spinners have averaged 21.4 compared to pacers’ 38.5. We’ve also seen more overs of spin (42) than pace (38) in this edition so far.
Delhi, though, in their first game, curiously bowled only 4 overs of spin in total - 2 of Alice Capsey and 2 of Radha Yadav.
The pacers did take the game to the very final over, but, overall, MI were pretty comfortable against the DC quicks, taking 132 runs in 16 overs while just losing 4 wickets.
Come Monday, the need of the hour from a DC perspective will be to tweak their bowling tactics a bit and send down significantly more overs of spin. Not just because spin has proven to be the trump card at the Chinnaswamy so far, but also due to how much the UPW batters struggled against the tweakers in the RCB clash.
In their first game this season, UPW lost each of their seven wickets to spin. With 6 of those 7 coming against wrist-spin, DC could very well look at drafting in Poonam Yadav in place of Radha.
Shafali Verma’s hot and cold form
Shafali Verma had an outstanding WPL 2023 (252 runs @ 31.5 and SR 185.29) but the explosive right-hander has blown pretty hot and cold of late. Across her last 18 T20s, dating back to March 2023, Shafali has averaged just 20.35, scoring more than 35 just thrice in 18 innings.
She had a game to forget against Mumbai a couple of days ago, being castled for 1 by Shabnim Ismail after facing eight balls.
Having crossed 25 just once across her last six innings in the WPL, the 20-year-old owes the team a big one.
Ground Details
Prior to this WPL season, The M Chinnaswamy Stadium hadn’t hosted a women’s T20 since 2016. But it’s already proven to be a fantastic venue for WT20s, providing outstanding entertainment.
Each of the first two games of this edition went to the very final ball, with the teams batting first scoring 171 & 157 respectively. While DC weren’t able to defend the 171 they posted, RCB successfully defended 156, with their spinners doing all the damage.
Spin, as already mentioned above, has proven to be the x-factor so far. Spinners have bowled more overs, taken more wickets, averaged better and taken wickets more frequently than the quicks so far in WPL 2024.
There’s not been too much purchase for seamers with the new ball, but spinners have found it easy to control the innings despite the boundaries being short.
Expect another moderately high-scoring encounter in which spin plays a key role.
Tactical Nous
> Sophie Ecclestone has an outstanding record against Annabel Sutherland. In all T20s, she has dismissed Sutherland thrice in 19 balls at an average of 3.3. Expect DC to bring in the left-arm spinner as soon as the right-hander walks in.
> Marizanne Kapp’s spell with the new ball could be a fascinating one, and could set the tone for the contest. She has an outstanding record against McGrath (5 dismissals at 12.4 avg) but has forgettable numbers against Healy, who averages 93 against the right-armer.
Probable XIs
DC could potentially bring in Poonam for Minnu Mani.
DC likely XI: Shafali Verma, Meg Lanning (c), Alice Capsey, Jemimah Rodrigues, Marizanne Kapp, Annabel Sutherland, Arundhati Reddy, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Minnu Mani / Poonam Yadav, Radha Yadav Poonam Yadav, Shikha Pandey
The Warriorz might contemplate bringing Anjali Sarvani in place of Saima Thakor, who had a rough outing against RCB.
UPW likely XI: Alyssa Healy (c & wk), Vrinda Dinesh, Tahlia McGrath, Grace Harris, Kiran Navgire, Deepti Sharma, Sophie Ecclestone, Shweta Sehrawat, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Khemnar, Saima Thakor / Anjali Sarvani
