UP Warriorz vs Mumbai Indians. Alyssa Healy vs Harmanpreet Kaur. Two teams at the opposite ends of the points table will meet at Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday.
The UP Warriorz find themselves in a spot of bother in the early stages of the tournament after having lost both their matches, the last one a particularly damaging loss to the Delhi Capitals by nine wickets which also put their net run-rate well into the negative.
Also Read: RCB Maintain Perfect Start With 8-wicket Win Over GG
The Alyssa Healy-led side would bank on Tahlia McGrath to come good with the bat and it would be interesting to see if Vrinda Dinesh gets another opportunity at the top of the order or whether they bring in Chamari Athapattu at the top of the order.
The one-dimensional, spin heavy nature to their bowling attack is another cause for concern for the Warriorz, who might look to bring in either Saima Thakor or Anjali Sarvani into their attack and hope for one of them to deliver the goods, especially with the new ball.
The key match-up that could decide the fate of the match would be the one involving the Warriorz top-order and Shabnim Ismail, who will come into the match after taking three wickets against Gujarat Giants and might have the extra motivation to put in a similar show against her former team on Wednesday.
MI have been the team to beat so far at the 2024 WPL. Ismail’s new ball spells have inevitably put the Kaur-led side on top in the opening exchanges of the Powerplay. The South African has been well supported by the likes of Amelia Kerr, who took a four-wicket haul against Giants on Sunday and Natalie Sciver-Brunt who has shuffled between sharing the new ball with Ismail and bowling after the Powerplay.
Their biggest positive with the bat, so far, has been the performance of skipper Kaur, who has scored a fifty and remained unbeaten in both matches so far and played a crucial role in MI crossing the line in both the encounters.
Yastika Bhatia registered a half-century in the opening clash and Kerr made an important contribution during the chase against GG to ensure that the burden of scoring the runs was shared in both the matches so far.
What MI will hope for on Wednesday will be a big score from the bat of Hayley Mathews and Sciver-Brunt in a bid to ensure that they have their overseas pros firing, ahead of their final clash against RCB on Saturday.
What: MI vs UPW, Match 6, WPL 2024
When: February 28, 2024, 7:30 PM IST
Where: M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
Likely playing XIs
The Mumbai Indians will look to keep their core intact and aim to win their third straight match of the tournament with the same playing XI.
MI: Hayley Matthews, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Amelia Kerr, Pooja Vastrakar, Amanjot Kaur, S Sajana, Shabnim Ismail, Keerthana Balakrishnan, Saika Ishaque.
The Warriorz will hope both Kiran Navgire and Shweta Sehrawat recover in time from the injuries they sustained during the match against DC in order to put forth a playing XI that is competitive enough to challenge the might of MI.
UPW: Alyssa Healy (c & wk), Vrinda Dinesh, Tahlia McGrath, Grace Harris, Kiran Navgire, Deepti Sharma, Sophie Ecclestone, Shweta Sehrawat, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Khemnar, Saima Thakor
Comments
0 comment