Big picture: Can UPW do it again against Mumbai?
MI, whose two wins seem a little distant now, have issues right at the top. G Kamalini’s returns have diminished steadily since her 32 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the tournament-opener, and she has had three opening partners in four matches. After Amelia Kerr’s struggles early on, MI brought in Hayley Matthews, then left her out in their last match and tried Amanjot Kaur up the order. Amanjot and Kamalini missed and edged plenty of times against both swing and spin in a powerplay that brought just 32 runs.
Amanjot opened the batting but didn’t bowl in MI’s last game because of a niggle that almost gave a WPL debut to pace-bowling allrounder Kranthi Reddy. If she isn’t fit for Saturday’s game, MI will have more woes at the top. The other big question is if they would want to fit in Matthews at least to add some fire at the top. Will they think of leaving out Kerr, among their most expensive bowlers in their last two matches?
Mumbai Indians (possible): 1 Amanjot Kaur, 2 G Kamalini (wk), 3 Nat Sciver-Brunt, 4 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 5 Nicola Carey, 6 Amelia Kerr, 7 S Sajana, 8 Poonam Khemnar, 9 Shabnim Ismail, 10 Sanskriti Gupta, 11 Triveni Vasistha.
UPW are looking close to nailing their ideal XI and may not want to make any changes. It remains to be seen if they continue with Kiran Navgire at the top or give a chance to G Trisha, the Player of the Final and Player of the Tournament from the Under-19 World Cup a year ago.
UP Warriorz (probable): 1 Meg Lanning (capt), 2 Kiran Navgire/G Trisha, 3 Phoebe Litchfield, 4 Harleen Deol, 5 Chloe Tryon, 6 Deepti Sharma, 7 Shweta Sehrawat, 8 Sophie Ecclestone, 9 Asha Sobhana, 10 Shikha Pandey, 11 Kranti Gaud.
UPW had a slow start but have a chance to go up the points table.
The toss decision is a no-brainer in evening games, but the chances of batting first increase a little bit for a 3pm start. On an average, teams still prefer to chase in T20s, though. It will be hot, with temperatures in the early 30s when the game begins and falling only by a couple of degrees by the time it ends.
The ball has swung prodigiously for the last two days in Navi Mumbai, causing plenty of problems in the powerplay. It will be interesting to see if it swings in the afternoon too, with swing bowlers on both sides.