Unchanged Capitals opt to bat; RCB bring in Meghana for Pokharkar

Cricket

Toss Delhi Capitals chose to bat vs Royal Challengers Bangalore

Delhi Capitals captain Meg Lanning continued with the trend of opting to bat first, when she won only her third toss in the tournament from nine games. In the Delhi leg of this WPL where teams batting first have won seven of the 10 games so far, Lanning said setting a target was the “best chance to win the game”.

Capitals went with the same XI that had beaten Gujarat Giants in their last league game, which means three pace bowlers and four spinners.

Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Smriti Mandhana wanted to bat first too but was “not really upset” and wants her bowlers to “bowl good length”. They made one change to their XI that had beaten defending champions Mumbai Indians in the eliminator, by bringing in S Meghana for left-arm quick Shradda Pokharkar who hadn’t bowled in the previous game. While that strengthens their batting, Meghna’s inclusion means RCB will have to change their batting order in which Mandhana has opened with Sophie Devine and Sophie Molineux as well in the tournament.

The pitch being used for the grand finale is the centre wicket with an even 55metre square boundaries on either side. It was the fourth game to be played on this track and the host broadcaster said Capitals have played two here and won both. The track looked dry and lack of dew in the evenings her has meant bowling second isn’t as tough as it usually is.

It was a sellout crowd at the Arun Jaitley Stadium where the captains at the toss drew raucous cheers from the crowd.

Capitals stormed into the WPL finals by topping the league table for the second year straight whereas RCB snatched a victory from Mumbai by just five runs on Friday night.

Capitals boasted a 4-0 record against RCB going into Sunday’s final.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Smriti Mandhana (capt), 2 Sophie Devine, 3 S Meghana, 4 Ellyse Perry, 5 Disha Kasat, 6 Richa Ghosh (wk), 7 Sophie Molineux, 8 Georgia Wareham, 9 Shreyanka Patil, 10 Sobhana Asha, 11 Renuka Singh

Delhi Capitals: 1 Meg Lanning (capt), 2 Shafali Verma, 3 Alice Capsey, 4 Jemimah Rodrigues, 5 Marizanne Kapp, 6 Jess Jonassen, 7 Arundhati Reddy, 8 Radha Yadav, 9 Minnu Mani, 10 Taniya Bhatia (wk), 11 Shikha Pandey

Products You May Like

Articles You May Like

Padres to play Bogaerts at SS, Cronenworth at 2B
Bucs’ Evans mulls joining USA for flag football
Does your club need goals? Assessing top No. 9s with a week left in transfer window
What worked? What didn’t? Reflecting on the UCL league phase
Lakers lose AD for game due to abdominal strain

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *