WPL 2024: Yastika Bhatia back as RCB win toss, elect to bat first against MI in Eliminator

New Delhi, March 15 (IANS): Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Smriti Mandhana won the toss and elected to bat first against defending champions Mumbai Indians in the Eliminator clash of Women's Premier League (WPL) 2024 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Friday.

The winner of Friday’s match will meet table-toppers Delhi Capitals in the title clash on Sunday. In the previous clash between the two teams in the league stage on Tuesday, Ellyse Perry’s sensational 6-15 and unbeaten 40 helped RCB beat MI by seven wickets.

“It's an Eliminator, runs on board definitely count. It'll start keeping low hopefully in the second innings. Throughout the tournament, lots of ups and downs. We'll take a lot of positives from the last match,” said Smriti after winning the toss, as RCB fielded an unchanged playing eleven.

The head-to-head record between MI and RCB stands at 1-1 in the ongoing season. Harmanpreet Kaur, the Mumbai skipper, said she wanted to bat first as well and confirmed that wicketkeeper-opener Yastika Bhatia has recovered from a bout of illness, which kept her out of the previous match, to replace Priyanka Bala in the playing eleven.

“We have learnt a lot. Today is a new match, hopefully, we do what we want to do. Staying in the moment is very important. Today's game is important and we want to give our 100%,” she said.

The pitch for Friday’s Eliminator will be number three surface, which has been a typically high-scoring one this season, with low bounce and stump-to-stump line bowling expected to yield high rewards for the fast bowlers.

Playing XIs:

Mumbai Indians: Hayley Matthews, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Amelia Kerr, Amanjot Kaur, Pooja Vastrakar, Sajeevan Sajana, Humairaa Kaazi, Shabnim Ismail and Saika Ishaque

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Smriti Mandhana (c), Sophie Molineux, Ellyse Perry, Sophie Devine, Richa Ghosh (wk), Georgia Wareham, Disha Kasat, Shreyanka Patil, Asha Sobhana, Shraddha Pokharkar and Renuka Singh Thakur.