Vadodara (Gujarat) [India], January 26 : Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) skipper Smriti Mandhana won the toss and elected to bowl first against the defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) in their Women's Premier League (WPL) clash at Vadodara on Monday.
With five wins and a loss finally added to their tally after defeat to Delhi Capitals (DC) on Saturday, RCB looks more or less sure of a direct spot in the final by topping the table. On the other hand, MI, sitting at number four in the table with two wins and four losses, have to bring their absolute best in the remaining two matches to have any chance of reaching the playoffs.
Speaking during the toss, RCB skipper Mandhana said the team will field the same XI.
"We would like to field first today. Dew has been a big factor at Baroda, and the wicket has played differently in almost every match. As a batting unit, it's good to know what to expect. A lot of learnings (from loss to DC), especially around batting, understanding and assessing situations quickly as a top order and knowing what our par score is. That's going to be extremely important going forward in the tournament. Of course, we also need to field and bowl in the right areas, which we did extremely well in the first five matches."
"There was a bump in the road last game, but we would like to rectify those mistakes. We have had a little experience over the last 10 days, but you can't come prepared assuming the wicket will play a certain way because it has been different every game. We'll have to see how the first couple of overs go, assess it, get together and communicate well with each other. Same eleven for us today," she added.
MI skipper Harmanpreet Kaur said they were looking to bowl first, as the conditions favoured it.
"But whatever comes our way, it's a very important match for us. Playing with a positive approach is the key today, that's more important. We spent some really good quality time together and had very productive meetings. Hopefully, whatever we discussed and trained on over the last few days, we will execute it out there. Today we have one change - Amelia Kerr is back in the side, and (Nicola) Carey misses out due to injury. It is an important game, we are going with our best eleven and hopefully we will play positive cricket," she added.
Grace Harris, Smriti Mandhana(c), Georgia Voll, Gautami Naik, Richa Ghosh(w), Radha Yadav, Nadine de Klerk, Arundhati Reddy, Sayali Satghare, Shreyanka Patil, Lauren Bell
Sajeevan Sajana, Hayley Matthews, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Amelia Kerr, Rahila Firdous(w), Amanjot Kaur, Sanskriti Gupta, Vaishnavi Sharma, Shabnim Ismail, Poonam Khemnar.