 "WPL Eliminator: Mandhana's RCB aim to stun Harmanpreet's Mumbai Indians; Date, Time, Venue, LIVE Streaming")
The WPL 2024 knockout is here and defending champions Mumbai Indians face Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Women’s Premier League Eliminator on Friday for a place in the final. Delhi Capitals have already reached the final by finishing at the top of the points table for a second consecutive time. Now it comes to the MI vs RCB match to find the second finalist.
Harmanpreet’s MI were in a similar situation last season when they defeated UP Warriorz in the Eliminator before getting better of DC in the WPL 2023 final. They would be seen as favourites once again in the Eliminator but RCB were the same team that jolted MI in their last league phase match, forcing them to finish in the second spot.
On Tuesday, Ellyse Perry took six wickets and scored 40 not out as RCB defeated Mumbai by seven wickets to reach the Eliminator for the first time.
“I have seen consistency. If we make an exception for the last match, all the other games that we won. Yes. the performance was not good in the last match, but that’s okay. “We are prepared for the next game. And this happened before the Eliminators so we are taking this as a good sign,” MI batting coach Devika Palshikaar said on the eve of the game.
Palshikaar thinks a repeat of what happened in 2023 is on the cards.
“Don’t you think that history is repeating. We went through this last year as well, just before the Eliminators there were little ups and downs, but we bounced back in the Eliminator and played one-sided against them.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“So, we are taking this as a ‘good luck’ sign hoping that we are going to repeat the same history this year with the same results as last year,” Palshikaar added.
In Harmanpreet Kaur, Shabnim Ismail, Natalie Sciver-Brunt, Pooja Vastrakar, Hayley Matthews and Amelia Kerr, Mumbai have a number of match-winners, but RCB have looked a better unit since last season even if they have won only four out of their eight matches in 2024.
Smriti Mandhana (259 runs) is in top form, while Richa Ghosh has scored 226 runs at a strike rate of 152.70. Asha Shobana has taken nine wickets so far, while Perry had a great all-round game in the last outing.
“We’re really excited to qualify for the playoffs. To be able to do that, we’ve needed different contributors at different times. Except, we haven’t been anywhere near perfect,” RCB head coach Luke Williams said.
“We’ve had performances we thought we can improve on. We’re primed to play some good cricket hopefully on Friday and if we’re good enough on Sunday as well."
MI vs RCB Head-to-Head: Mumbai Indians have a 3-1 head-to-head lead over RCB in WPL history.
MI vs RCB match date: 15 March (Friday)
MI vs RCB match venue: Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi
MI vs RCB match timings: 7:30pm IST
MI vs RCB match live streaming: The match will be broadcast on Sports 18 HD/SD channels and can also be live streamed on JioCinema app and website.
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