3 mouth-watering clash to look forward to in WPL 2025

The third season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) is all set to begin from February 14th 2025 with Gujarat Giants taking on the defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). 

The high-profile T20 tournament has been the most lucrative event in Women’s Cricket. When a tournament brings in big bucks to the basket, we can certainly expect teams to be of top quality, and cracking into the squad itself is going to be a massive deal.

In such cases, the matchups between teams need to be at their peak, bringing out the best in the teams participating and giving viewers and the crowd in the stadium a contest to remember. 

Here are the three major matchups between teams which can be expected to be a mouth-watering contest:

Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Mumbai Indians (RCB vs MI)

The RCB-MI rivalry has had a head start of over 15 years, with both teams having epic encounters in the men’s format at the Indian Premier League (IPL). 

The all-star line ups in the men’s version has reflected in the women’s version as both these teams have big time superstars like Smriti Mandhana, Ellyse Perry in RCB and Harmanpreet Kaur, Nat-Sciver Brunt in MI. 

Both these teams have a similar structure, with the all-rounder playing a huge part, with MI having Kerr, Brunt and Matthews and RCB having Perry, Wareham and Dean.

So far, MI have a 3-2 upper hand against RCB. But, the previous two encounters, which were high stakes for RCB, resulted in the Bengaluru franchise finding success as RCB were the team that beat MI in the eliminator of WPL 2024 and avoided going to back-to-back finals.

RCB vs MI matches in WPL 2025 

Match 7: RCB vs MI, Bengaluru - 21st February 2025

Match 20: MI vs RCB, Mumbai - 11th March 2025

Delhi Capitals vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru (DC vs RCB)

DC have dominated RCB on paper, beating them in four of the five games so far in WPL. But, the only win that RCB got against them was in the final of the 2024 edition of the WPL, which earned RCB their first title in both men’s and women’s versions of the team’s existence.

Like MI vs RCB, in this match-up to big names are tussling with Aussie Legend Meg Lanning leading the side along with Shafali Varma, Jemimah Rodrigues, and Marizanne Kapp against the likes of Smriti Mandhana, Richa Ghosh and Ellyse Perry.

With both sides having a full-stakes team, expect this rivalry to be even hotter in the upcoming season.

DC vs RCB matches in WPL 2025

Match 4: DC vs RCB, Vadodara - 17th February 2025

Match 14: RCB vs DC, Bengaluru - 1st March 2025

Gujarat Giants vs UP Warriorz (GG vs UPW)

Gujarat Giants and UP Warriorz have been at odds in the WPL in the first two seasons. These sides have had less success than the other three teams whose management has previous experience working in a T20 franchise environment through the IPL.

Still, these two teams have built a rivalry, as UP has dominated Giants, winning three of the four encounters. The face-offs in 2023 were not easy, as UP won both games with three wickets in the penultimate ball. 

In the 2024 season, UP won the first face-off in dominant fashion, winning by six wickets with 26 balls to spare. Gujarat were finally able to retaliate as they won the second face-off, winning the game by a closing margin of just eight runs, defending a total of 152. Finally, Gujarat found success in defending totals in the fourth attempt against UP Warriorz.

GG vs UPW matches in WPL 2025

Match 3: GG vs UPW, Vadodara - 16th February 2025

Match 15: UPW vs GG, Lucknow - 3rd March 2025