Lucknow, March 8 (IANS) Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain Smriti Mandhana won the toss and chose to bowl first against UP Warriorz in their last league match of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2025 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium here on Saturday.
Smriti Mandhana said they have made two changes to the side with Charlie Dean, making her debut for the side, coming in for Danni Wyatt-Hodge and S. Meghana replacing Ekta Bisht.
As RCB are playing after a short break, Smriti said they reflected on the Bengaluru leg and had a few team bonding sessions. They were in a similar position last year, so they look to learn from that, the RCB captain said.
UP Warriorz are wearing special pink jerseys to mark International Women’s Day. The two captains also unveiled a special banner to support girl children’s education and development.
“Excited to play on this special occasion of International Women’s Day but as a team, disappointed that we will not be progressing further,” said Deepti Sharma.
She said there have been some positives for UPW. She said they have tried players as per the conditions and situations and they wanted to field their best eleven. UPW also made two changes to their playing XI with Poonam Khemnar and Anjali Sarvani coming in for Vrinda Dinesh and Gouher Sultana.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru need to win this match to keep their playoff chances alive while UP Warriorz will be hoping to end their campaign with a rousing victory at home after having already been eliminated from the tournament.
Playing XIs:
UP Warriorz: Grace Harris, Georgia Voll, Kiran Navgire, Deepti Sharma (c), Shweta Sehrawat, Poonam Khemnar, Uma Chetry (wk), Chinelle Henry, Sophie Ecclestone, Kranti Goud, Anjali Sarvani
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Smriti Mandhana (c), S Meghana, Ellyse Perry, Raghvi Bisht, Richa Ghosh (wk), Kanika Ahuja, Georgia Wareham, Sneh Rana, Charlie Dean, Kim Garth, Renuka Singh.
–IANS
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