WPL 2023: RCB-W vs DEL-W 2nd Match - Predicted Delhi Capitals Women Playing XI vs Royal challengers Bangalore Women

The inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League has taken the cricketing fraternity by storm with the opening game between Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Giants. Continuing with the breathtaking action, the second match of the tournament will be played between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on March 5 (Sunday).

Led by arguably the most successful women’s captain in international cricket, Meg Lanning, Capitals are expected to put on a spectacular performance in the first season of WPL. They will face a star-studded RCB who are being touted as the strongest of the competition. Delhi will have to bring their A-game to the fore and field a strong playing to compete against RCB.

Here is Delhi Capitals predicted XI for the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore

Openers: Shafali Verma, Alice Capsey

Having made her debut at the age of 15 in 2019, Shafali Verma quickly rose through the ranks to become the world’s no. one T20I batter in no time. Verma recently led India to a historic title win in the inaugural Women’s U19 T20 World Cup. However, the swashbuckling opener didn’t have memorable outings with the bat in the recently concluded Women’s T20 World Cup.

The swashbuckling opener will be eager to get a big score under her belt and get her tournament off to a rollicking start. On the other hand, Alice Capsey has just arrived on the international scene having made her debut in 2022.

The 18-year-old has scored 307 runs in 15 T20Is so far at an impressive strike rate of 132.90. Capsey will be a great choice at the top for Delhi to give them explosive starts.

Middle Order: Meg Lanning (c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Laura Harris, Taniya Bhatia(wk)

Meg Lanning is a veteran as she is the second leading run-scorer in the WT20I format with 3405 runs to her name at an average of 36.61. In the recently concluded Women’s T20I World Cup 2023, she was Australia’s third-highest run-getter with 149 runs to her name. Having the experience of Lanning at number three will help Delhi recover from early batting collapses.

On the other hand, the 22-year-old Jemimah Rodrigues is in great form coming into the tournament having scored 129 runs in the Women's T20 World Cup which included two brilliant knocks while chasing. 

As far as Laura Harris is concerned, she has been a consistent performer in the Women’s Big Bash League over the years having scored 1061 runs in 107 matches at a sensational strike rate of 155.8.

Taniya Bhatia is expected to don the gloves for Delhi. Bhatia is an experienced campaigner having represented India on 53 occasions in T20Is. She has inflicted 68 dismissals in her career spanning over four years.

All-rounders: Marizanne Kapp, Shikha Pandey

Marizanne Kapp didn’t have memorable outings with the bat in the Women’s T20 World Cup. However, she scalped nine wickets in the tournament at an average of 15.44. Her international experience will make things fairly easy for Delhi.

Shikha Pandey is a handy all-rounder to have in the team. She has scored 208 runs in 62 matches and has scalped 43 wickets. She ended up picking three wickets at an average of 32 in the recent Women's T20 World Cup.

Bowlers: Arundhati Reddy, Radha Yadav, Poonam Yadav

Radha Yadav is a left-arm orthodox bowler and brings variety to the bowling attack. She has scalped 68 wickets in 67 WT20Is at an average of 21.54. In addition to that, she is a gun fielder and that will reflect in the field too.

The 25-year-old Arundhati Reddy has scalped 18 wickets in 26 international matches and can be handy with the bat as well.

A wrist spinner is an attacking option in T20s and Poonam Yadav can fill in at that place for Delhi. She’s the second-highest wicket-taker for India in WT20Is having picked up 98 wickets in 72 matches at an average of 15.25.

 Predicted playing XI: Shafali Verma, Alice Capsey, Meg Lanning (c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Marizanne Kapp, Laura Harris, Taniya Bhatia (w), Shikha Pandey, Arundhati Reddy, Radha Yadav, Poonam Yadav

For a better experience: Download the CricTracker app from the IOS App Store and Google Play Store