RCB gear up as first ever home game beckons

If Day 1 saw a repeat of the first ever Women's Premier League (WPL) season final, the second day will witness the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) finally play at their home ground. 

Game two sees RCB take on UP Warriorz, who finished third in the inaugural edition, and the home team will want to shrug off their first season blues and come up with a better performance this time around. In the H2H meetings last season, the two sides shared bragging rights, as they won a match apiece.

At the auction, UPW spent INR 1.3 crore on Vrinda Dinesh, apart from pocketing a couple of known names in Danni Wyatt and Gouher Sultana. RCB, meanwhile, were surprisingly frugal in their buys with the INR 60 Lakh paycheck for Ekta Bisht being the most expensive one for them this year. 

Both teams seem to have structured themselves a bit differently, so it’ll be interesting to see which approach turns out to be more successful at the end of this season.

Things to watch out for

Smriti’s form in the RCB red and gold

149 runs at an average of 18 and a strike rate of 111.

Safe to say, Smriti Mandhana did not have the greatest of outings while representing RCB in the maiden WPL season. And with the skipper not in form, the spillover effect was evident as RCB seemed to be sleepwalking through the season. 

Her struggles against off-spin are well-documented and the team will be hoping that things will be different this time around. But there were positive signs in the three T20Is against Australia last month, as Mandhana seemed at ease while playing Gardner and remained unbeaten in the 35 balls she faced of the off-spinner. 

With Deepti Sharma, arguably the world’s best off-spinner, in the opposition, will Smriti stand her ground to the match-up?

UPW’s bowling attack

When you have the world’s best (Sophie Ecclestone) and second-best T20I bowler (Deepti Sharma) in your XI, the last thing you’d want to worry about is your bowling. 

Sophie lived up to her hype last season as she ended the season as the second highest wicket-taker with 16 scalps to show for. This time around, the UPW fans would be hoping to see her do an encore. Deepti Sharma, her partner-in-crime at the Warriorz, will want to improve on her showing from 2023, which saw her concede runs at an uncharacteristically expensive 8.9 RPO. 

It helps that their coach seems to be confident in the team's spin unit. 

“The dominant force in women’s cricket at the moment is spin bowling.  We may perhaps be slightly over-reliant on spinners, but I feel that’s probably the one area where, if we get that right, we can take the competition on,” Jon Lewis, UP Warriorz head coach, said ahead of the RCB clash.

They will however be wary about their thin pace reserves, which might get further exacerbated by the fact that they will be playing at the Chinnaswamy - a graveyard for bowlers. 

RCB’s bowlers at the Chinnaswamy

To say that RCB, last season, had a poor performance with the ball in hand would be an understatement of the highest order. 

They were able to pick only 34 wickets in their eight games, the least for any team and a good 11 wickets less than the next worst (Gujarat Giants - 45). Renuka Singh in particular had a horrendous season, picking just a solitary wicket in the 100 balls she bowled across six innings. And this came while conceding at 9.6 RPO. 

Outside Renuka, the only other domestic pacer they have is Shraddha Pokharkar, who was brought in as an injury replacement for Kanika Ahuja. Given that they will be relying on their all-rounders in Ellyse Perry, Nadine de Klerk, and Sophie Devine, this is an area that could be a bit of a slippery slope for them. 

Sure, the Bangalore-based franchise will be happy to play in front of their home crowd at the Chinnaswamy, but can the same be said about their bowlers?

Ground details

In the eight WT20Is played here, spinners have picked up nearly 58% of the wickets at an economy of 6.4. Although, having not hosted a WT20 in over seven years, it remains to be seen how the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium fares in the WPL. But given how the venue played in IPL 2023 (RR - 9.7 & Avg - 31.2), expect the surface to be as batter-friendly as ever. 

Tactical insights

> Sophie Devine loves playing spin and at a venue like the Chinnaswamy, she’ll be licking her lips at the prospect of facing over 10 overs of spin. She averages nearly 40 while striking at over 135 against the slow bowlers. 

> Renuka Singh made a comeback to T20 cricket with the T20I series against England in December. The six T20Is she’s played since then has seen her take seven powerplay wickets at an average of 14.6 and an economy of six. Also, she’s had the wood over the UPW skipper, having dismissed Healy five times in 11 innings. 

> Speaking of Healy, the batter seems to have turned a new leaf after a dominating 50 in the series decider against India last month. Since then, she’s scored at an average of 35 and a strike rate of 144 and is one of only two Aussie batters (Beth Mooney being the other) to have scored over 100 WT20I runs in the same time frame. 

Probable XIs

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Smriti Mandhana (C), Sophie Devine, S. Meghana, Ellyse Perry, Indrani Roy, Richa Ghosh (WK), Nadine de Klerk, Sophie Molineux, Shreyanka Patil, Asha Sobhana, Renuka Singh

UP Warriorz: Alyssa Healy (C & WK), Vrinda Dinesh, Kiran Navgire, Tahlia McGrath, Grace Harris, Poonam Khemnar, Sophie Ecclestone, Deepti Sharma, Parshavi Chopra, Anjali Sarvani, Saima Thakor