WPL | Batting depth gives Royal Challengers slight edge over Delhi Capitals

Vadodara: After starting from the blocks with contrasting wins, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Delhi Capitals will look to consolidate their position when they meet in WPL 2025 here on Monday.

Defending champions Royal Challengers brushed aside Gujarat Giants by six wickets in the opening game, while the Capitals had to go through a last-ball thriller before notching a win over Mumbai Indians.

But the overall balance, especially in batting, and bowling gives RCB a slight edge over Delhi.

Their batting strength was on full display when the Smriti Mandhana-led side chased down a 200-plus target without much ado.

They have been bolstered by the addition of young talents like Raghavi Bist, Kanika Ahuja, who have seamlessly blended with seniors Mandhana, Ellyse Perry, Richa Ghosh and Danny Wyatt.

Both Kanika and Bist had played excellent roles too in the team’s win over GG.

However, they might just hope for a tidier effort from their bowlers, and Perry abstaining from bowling has reduced their efficiency a bit in that department.

The Aussie star is recovering from a hip injury that she sustained during the recent Women’s Ashes, and will not be bowling at least in the initial stages of the WPL.

So, RCB will need a heftier contribution from experienced Kim Garth and Georgia Wareham, as both leaked plenty of runs against Gujarat.

They would also like to see youngsters VJ Joshitha and Prema Rawat too step up and support seasoned Renuka Singh.

It is imperative because Delhi has a fiery batting unit consisting of skipper Meg Lanning, Annabel Sutherland, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Alice Capsey and Sarah Bryce.

They did not deliver as desired in a middling chase against Mumbai, but they will be looking to atone for that blip against a relatively more inexperienced bowling lineup of RCB.

The Bengaluru outfit will have their task cut out against Delhi bowlers, led by veteran pacer Shikha Pandey, as they did well to restrict Mumbai to 164 in the previous match.

However, the RCB batting line-up could offer them a vastly different challenge.

Squads Delhi Capitals: Meg Lanning (Captain), Alice Capsey, Sarah Bryce, Annabel Sutherland, Minnu Mani, Shafali Verma, Arundhati Reddy, N Charani, Shikha Pandey, Jemimah Rodrigues, Nandini Kashyap, Sneha Deepthi, Jess Jonassen, Niki Prasad, Taniyaa Bhatia, Marchizanne Kapp, Radha Yadav, Titas Sadhu.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Smriti Mandhana (Captain), Nuzhat Parween, Joshitha Vj, Richa Ghosh, Danni Wyatt, Kanika Ahuja, Sabbineni Meghana, Ekta Bisht, Kim Garth, Shreyanka Patil, Ellyse Perry, Prema Rawat, Georgia Wareham, Raghvi Bist, Heather Graham, Jagravi Pawar, Renuka Singh, Charlie Dean.

Match starts at 7.30 pm.