Sophie Devine: Nice to be here in this position after a pretty tough season last season. To be able to pull through and have a good win against Mumbai the other day ... but everything starts from scratch today. We know that we haven't played our best cricket. Our last game was pretty close to what we've been after the whole tournament. Although we've got a bit of confidence, we know that this Mumbai team is going to come back hard. I certainly hope so (picked up momentum at the right time). A lot has been spoken about that our best cricket is in front of us and I certainly think that's still the case today. It's a scrumptious match-up today coming up against Mumbai, the reigning champs. Hopefully we can put out a good performance. We know, when we are at our best, we are going to be tough to beat. I have got to be the first to admit that I haven't had the best season so far with the bat, so hopefully I can contribute a bit more. WIth the ball, it's been pretty tough going, Elysse Perry seemed to make it look pretty easy the other night with ball in hand. For us, the simple thing is to stay on the stumps, when you do that you get rewarded. Fingers crossed I can keep my game pretty simple and pull out a big one tonight. (Conditions) Every team has had to adapt slightly differently from what we found in Bangalore. We've seen the extremes - we've seen scores of 180-190 and then we've seen teams bowled out for just over 100. You've got a bit of everything. We are on a used pitch tonight and a slightly shorter boundary. The team that adapts the quickest is going to come out on top.

Teams:

Mumbai Indians Women (Playing XI): Hayley Matthews, Yastika Bhatia(w), Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Amelia Kerr, Amanjot Kaur, Pooja Vastrakar, S Sajana, Humaira Kazi, Shabnim Ismail, Saika Ishaque

Harmanpreet Kaur: We were confused, we were looking to bat first as well. Yastika is back today for Bala. We have learnt a lot. Today is a new match, hopefully we do what we want to do. Staying in the moment is very important. Today's game is important and we want to give our 100%.

Smriti Mandhana: We would like to bat first today. It's an Eliminator, runs on board definitely count. It'll start keeping low hopefully in the second innings. We are unchanged today. Throughout the tournament, lots of ups and downs. We'll take a lot of positives from the last match. 

Royal Challengers Bangalore Women (Playing XI): Smriti Mandhana(c), Sophie Molineux, Ellyse Perry, Sophie Devine, Richa Ghosh(w), Georgia Wareham, Disha Kasat, Shreyanka Patil, Asha Sobhana, Shraddha Pokharkar, Renuka Thakur Singh

Harmanpreet Kaur: We were confused, we were looking to bat first as well. Yastika is back today for Bala. We have learnt a lot. Today is a new match, hopefully we do what we want to do. Staying in the moment is very important. Today's game is important and we want to give our 100%.

Smriti Mandhana: We would like to bat first today. It's an Eliminator, runs on board definitely count. It'll start keeping low hopefully in the second innings. We are unchanged today. Throughout the tournament, lots of ups and downs. We'll take a lot of positives from the last match.

Royal Challengers Bangalore Women have won the toss and have opted to bat

Pitch Report | Katey Martin: "We've moved into Pitch 3 here in Delhi. It's the highest scoring wicket that we have seen so far since we've been here. Partly down to the surface but also the boundary dimensions. 46 metres and 63 metres square and down the ground - 64 metres. We've seen people clear the boundary easily. In Delhi, we've seen a lot lower bounce. A 12 cm difference (between Delhi and Bengaluru) and that's really down to the fact that there's been bare patches. That has brought different modes of dismissals - bowled and lbw. Over 54% of dismissals have been bowled and lbws. The bowlers have brought the stumps into play and challenged the batters. This wicket will have a little bit of extra bounce compared to what we have seen. The pace bowlers will be trying to hit the good length and bring the stumps into play. The lines have to be tighter as there's such a short boundary."

MI were the first team to progress to the playoffs but failed to finish on the top of the table. They finished second even in the previous edition but they won two knockout matches to clinch the inaugural WPL title. Kaur and Co. would hope for the same thing to play out again. RCB, who registered just two wins last year, have fared much better this time with four wins and four losses. After an agonising 1-run loss at the hands of Delhi, they came up with a splendid performance against the reigning champions to become the third team to qualify for the progress. Here at the same venue, only a few days ago (Tuesday), Ellyse Perry put on an exhibition of seam bowling. Her six-fer bundled out Mumbai for 113 and Bangalore hunted it down with five overs to spare. Will that result have any psychological bearing on today's encounter? Who'll handle the nerves better? Answers coming your way shortly. This should be a mouth-watering contest...

18:30 Local Time, 13:00 GMT, 18:30 IST:

Preview by Purnima Malhotra

"If we could do exactly the same, we'd be pretty happy with that." Luke Williams, the RCB head coach, knows their re-match against Mumbai Indians in the WPL 2024 Eliminator on Friday (March 15) won't be as easy.

Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur's whirlwind 95* had already put Mumbai in the playoffs before the Ellyse Perry-led seven-wicket thrashing at the hands of Royal Challengers Bangalore earlier this week that cost them a direct seat in the tournament finale for a second successive year. Whilst remarkably led by their in-form captain, Mumbai, as a team, have not enjoyed that dominant a run this season - their five victories interspersed by three comprehensive losses.

But a hurt MI unit can be a different beast altogether. Ask UP Warriorz, who inflicted a five-wicket defeat to similarly dent MI's direct qualification berth last year only to be completely outplayed in the subsequent Eliminator.

"Don't you think history is repeating itself?" batting coach Devieka Palshikaar quipped on the eve of the game. The Mumbai camp is seeing this as a good omen, hoping to confront RCB with the allround might they're known for, and showcase their bouncebackability to make the final showdown, co-incidentally against Delhi Capitals once more.

However, this isn't the RCB of last year that lost five on the trot to be practically out of the knockouts race even before they could find their feet in the competition. The reformed and refurbished Smriti Mandhana-led outfit has shown pluck on the field and been much calmer off it. Unlike last year, RCB have had different contributors stepping up on different occasions to help the team redeem itself - be it Asha Sobhana's fifer on the opening night or Mandhana's roaring return to form; be it young Richa Ghosh coming of age or the experienced Perry rewinding the clock.

A couple of close games going their way could have made life easier, and less heartbreaking. But, that they remained incharge of their fate till the end was a big shot in the arm ahead of the "virtual quarterfinal" RCB treated their final league game against MI as. That said, RCB are cognizant of the challenge at hand now - of downing the reigning champions again before they can think of the final hurdle - and the fact that they've admittedly been nowhere near perfect thus far. On Friday, anything less will not fly.

When: Friday, March 15 at 7:30 PM IST

Where: Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi

What to expect: The centre pitches that are being prepared for the knockouts have been full of runs in WPL 2024. Expect more of the same. Dew hasn't been much of a factor in the Delhi leg. The captains have actually reversed the trend and opted to put runs on the board first, and it could be no different on Friday. Weather wise, there's no interruption expected.

Team News

Mumbai Indians

Yastika Bhatia, who missed Mumbai's last league game due to an illness is said to have recovered well and practiced with the team on the eve of the knockout clash. MI confirmed the return of their regular wicketkeeper-cum-opener, meaning S Sajana will likely drop down in the batting order to the finisher's role. Priyanka Bala, therefore, will make way in the only change expected to Mumbai's XI.

Probable XI: Hayley Matthews, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Amelia Kerr, Pooja Vastrakar, S Sajana, Amanjot Kaur, Humaria Kaazi, Shabnim Ismail, Saika Ishaque

Royal Challengers Bangalore

The drop down in the batting order hasn't exactly clicked for Sophie Devine either but RCB might be wary of making any drastic changes in their first knockout match of WPL. S Meghana, who sat out the last couple of games in a difficult tactical call for RCB, could return to the XI in place of Disha Kasat. Between her and Sophie Molineux, RCB have a host of opening combinations to bank on depending on the conditions and match-ups. They'll also likely continue backing left-arm seamer Shraddha Pokharkar.

Probable XI: Smriti Mandhana (C), Sophie Molineux, Ellyse Perry, Sophie Devine, Richa Ghosh (wk), Georgia Wareham, S Meghana, Shreyanka Patil, Asha Sobhana, Shraddha Pokharkar, Renuka Thakur

Did you know?

- MI have a 3-1 win-loss record against RCB in WPL

- Amelia Kerr has bagged the Player of the Match in two of those three wins

- Ellyse Perry is just 1 run away from becoming the fourth batter - after Meg Lanning, Harmanpreet Kaur and Shafali Verma - to register 500 WPL runs

What they said:

Devieka Palshikaar, MI batting coach,

"Meghana missed out on the last game or two [since] we were trying out different combinations. It's a really tough decision with her because she was influential in our early wins in the tournament. [But] there's aspects of our team combinations that we wanted to keep trying different things as well. We'll have some meetings post practice today and she'll be in strong consideration in terms of the line-up for tomorrow," - Luke Williams, RCB head coach, on benching S Meghana

Squads:

Mumbai Indians Women Squad: Hayley Matthews, S Sajana, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Amelia Kerr, Amanjot Kaur, Pooja Vastrakar, Humaira Kazi, Priyanka Bala(w), Shabnim Ismail, Saika Ishaque, Chloe Tryon, Fatima Jaffer, Keerthana Balakrishnan, Issy Wong, Yastika Bhatia, Jintimani Kalita, Amandeep Kaur

Royal Challengers Bangalore Women Squad: Smriti Mandhana(c), Sophie Molineux, Ellyse Perry, Sophie Devine, Richa Ghosh(w), Georgia Wareham, Disha Kasat, Shreyanka Patil, Asha Sobhana, Shraddha Pokharkar, Renuka Thakur Singh, Simran Bahadur, Indrani Roy, Shubha Satheesh, Nadine de Klerk, Sabbhineni Meghana, Kate Cross, Ekta Bisht