Delhi Capitals look for win against UP Warriorz to seal Eliminator berth in WPL

Lack of runs for some of their top batters notwithstanding, Delhi Capitals will have their fate in their own hands as they look for a win against UP Warriorz in the final league match of the Women’s Premier League match here on Sunday.

A win for DC will straightaway send them to the Eliminator against Gujarat Giants with eight points for a third-place finish in the league, knocking defending champions Mumbai Indians out of the reckoning.

On the other hand, a victory for bottom-placed UP Warriorz could open the door for Mumbai. In that situation, all the three sides — Mumbai, DC and Warriorz — will be on same six points and net run rate (NRR) will decide who will face Gujarat Giants in the Eliminator for a place in the final.

Of the three, Warriorz have the worst NRR of minus 1.146 while DC have minus 0.164. MI have the best NRR of the three with plus 0.059.

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Royal Challengers Bengaluru have already booked a direct place in the final after topping the five-team standings with six wins from eight matches.

DC’s top-order batters have not scored too many runs this season, with South African Lizelle Lee being the most prolific for them with 230 runs from seven matches. South African star Laura Wolvaardt has made 194 from seven games, much below expectations.

Shafali Verma has been inconsistent with 179 runs from seven matches and DC would hope for a big contribution from the Indian opener in the crunch match.

New captain Jemimah Rodrigues has contributed even less with 132 runs from seven matches, and a big knock from her could lift the team. Her highest has been a 51 not out so far.

In the bowling front also, DC’s foreign recruits have been below-par with the experienced South African Marizanne Kapp and West Indian Chinelle Henry struggling with just seven and six wickets respectively. It is the same scenario for India bowlers Sneh Rana and Minnu Mani also.

In fact, DC’s wicket-taking duties this season have been mainly shouldered by two youngsters — uncapped pacer Nandani Sharma (14 wickets from 7 matches) and India left-arm spinner Shree Charani (12 wickets from 7 matches).

The Warriorz, on the other hand, are coming in after two consecutive losses, the latest being the 8-wicket thrashing at the hands of RCB on Friday. Scoring a below par 143 for 8 and then losing the match in just 13.1 overs must have dented their confidence, but they will need to quickly regroup themselves.

Except for the Australian duo of captain Meg Lanning (248 from 7 matches) and Phoebe Litchfield (243 from 6 matches), all other batters have failed to perform this season. Litchfield’s absence due to injury will also hurt them.

Their bowling department also failed to impress with the likes of England’s Sophie Ecclestone (6 wickets from 7 matches) and India’s Deepti Sharma (5 from 7 matches) producing below-par performances. The star duo needs to bring out something special on Sunday if the Warriorz want a big win for a chance to sneak into the Eliminator.

Teams (from):

Delhi Capitals: Jemimah Rodrigues (c), Taniya Bhatia, Chinelle Henry, Lizelle Lee, Niki Prasad, Shafali Verma, Laura Wolvaardt, Lucy Hamilton, Marizanne Kapp, Alana King, Sneh Rana, Pragati Singh, Minnu Mani, Nandani Sharma, Shree Charani, Eddla Srujana.

UP Warriorz: Meg Lanning (c), Harleen Deol, Shipra Giri, Amy Jones, Kiran Navgire, Pratika Rawal, Simran Shaikh, Gongadi Trisha, Deandra Dottin, Charli Knott, Shikha Pandey, Shweta Sehrawat, Deepti Sharma, Asha Sobhana, Chloe Tryon, Sophie Ecclestone, Kranti Gaud, Suman Meena.