Is the Women’s Premier League about to become a DC marvel?

When the in-form Delhi Capitals play the tenacious Royal Challengers Bangalore in the summit matchup here tomorrow, inspired by the inspiring Meg Lanning, they’ll be hoping for second time fortunate and their first Women’s Premier League championship.

DC seems like a revitalized team this year after losing to Mumbai Indians in the final, which resulted in them missing out on the trophy in the inaugural edition last year.

They lead the five-team league with 12 points after eight games, demonstrating their incredible form.

With 308 runs from eight innings, Lanning has led DC from the lead. With 11 wickets taken between her and Australian left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen, all-rounder Marizanne Kapp of South Africa, is the team’s best wicket-taker.

This season, DC has only lost twice, against MI and UP Warriorz. With those two games excluded, they have had an almost flawless season. They have never lost to RCB in four encounters, thus they will undoubtedly start as favorites going into the final.

“We are genuinely feeling positive about tomorrow. This game is going to be awesome. We are really eager to participate and provide ourselves the chance to succeed,” Lanning said.

That being said, previous performance is almost meaningless in the end. It’s an enormous event, and the team who can handle the strain and the expectations will emerge victorious.

Smriti Mandhana, the captain of RCB, has great respect for Lanning, but she believes a leader is never better than the team.

“We place a lot of value on the captaincy, but the team is just as good as the captain.” Nothing is different for us against the Delhi Capitals tomorrow; they have produced some incredible cricket over the last two seasons,” Mandhana said.

Revolutionaries

Alongside Lanning, DC will hope that the explosive Shafali Verma will give them a fast start.

While Jemimah Rodrigues has performed well in the center, Lanning would have liked to see more from players like Alice Capsey and Kapp, who are all-arounders.

Although Jonassen has been the standout bowler, others like Kapp and Shikha Pandey have also made an impact.

However, following an uneven run that produced eight points, RCB ended third in the league round. When it meant most, however, they defeated MI, the reigning champions, on Friday.

Ellyse Perry, an Australian all-rounder who leads the team in runs scored with 312, will be crucial to RCB’s victory since she has shown promise with the ball, taking seven wickets. — PTI

Smriti prevents men from failing.

Before tomorrow’s final, RCB captain Smriti Mandhana expressed her desire to avoid undue pressure on her team and said she was not in the mood to draw parallels with their IPL men’s team counterparts. The RCB men’s squad has been runners-up three times in the previous 17 years and has not won an IPL championship. However, the Mandhana-led women’s squad has a chance to win the championship as we enter the second WPL season.

“First of all, I believe that this year was crucial for us to connect to the whole brand because of the men’s experiences, which might sometimes put pressure on them. We basically reasoned that because there are already two seasons, there is no need to worry too much. Therefore, not really connected to the events involving the men’s squad,” Mandhana said.