Dottin to Wyatt-Hodge, FOUR, Wyatt-Hodge gets off the mark with a boundary! Full outswinger outside off, Wyatt-Hodge presses forward and carves it over point. Kashvee Gautam doesn't have much distance to cover

Dottin to Mandhana, 1 run, over the wicket, short of length ball on leg and that's been tucked through square leg. Mandhana opens her account with a single

Mandhana and Wyatt-Hodge are at the crease. Mandhana is on strike. Dottin will open the attack

The players make their way out to the middle.

Teams:

Royal Challengers Bengaluru Women (Playing XI): Smriti Mandhana(c), Danielle Wyatt-Hodge, Ellyse Perry, Richa Ghosh(w), Raghvi Bist, Kanika Ahuja, Georgia Wareham, Sneh Rana, Kim Garth, Prema Rawat, Renuka Singh Thakur

Gujarat Giants Women (Playing XI): Beth Mooney(w), Harleen Deol, Phoebe Litchfield, Dayalan Hemalatha, Ashleigh Gardner(c), Kashvee Gautam, Deandra Dottin, Meghna Singh, Tanuja Kanwar, Priya Mishra, Bharti Fulmali

Smriti Mandhana: We would have loved to chase as well.

Ashleigh Gardner: We are going to bowl first. Chasing seems to be easier throughout the competition. Hopefully we'll be able to take early wickets. We spoke about the powerplay. The bowlers have done a reasonable job. 

Gujarat Giants Women have won the toss and have opted to field

Loud RCB chants and it's toss time...

Pitch Report | Anjum Chopra and Stacy-Ann King: "The surface here is always good for batting. We've seen that right through the tournament. But it's a different surface from what it was last evening. Dimensions - 54m and 57m square boundaries, straight hit is 68m. The surface looks nice to bat on. It's pitch number 6, it's the pitch that the first match was played when we got here. Mumbai Indians played RCB and 176 was scored by RCB, it was chased with one ball remaining. So, it's a good batting track. It's pretty dry, it's not as grassy as some of the other pitches, quite hard, quite firm, quite compact. But the only area of concern I think there might be is this area (on a full length outside the line of off-stump for a right-handed batter) of green. What we've seen at this venue so far is 0.7 degrees of seam. So, the bowlers may try to get a bit fuller. Once it seams, it'll spin, so spinners will be in action as well."

18:35 Local Time, 13:05 GMT: Hello everyone and a warm welcome to Game 12 of the WPL. Defending champions - Royal Challengers Bengaluru - kickstarted their campaign with back-to-back convincing wins in Vadodara. But they've suffered two losses at home - both close encounters. Their fans will once again come out in large numbers to support their team. Ellyse Perry has struck three fifties in four matches and she'll hope that their bowlers fare better, especially when under pressure. The wooden spoon winners of the last two seasons - Gujarat Giants - are placed at the bottom of the points table with just one win in four matches. Barring one game, no team has managed to defend a total batting first this season. The Giants' batters were below-par in the last two matches as they were able to score just120 and 127. Can Gardner and Co. turn their fortunes around? When these two teams met earlier this season, RCB chased down GG's 201 which is the highest successful chase in the history of WPL. Let's find out what's in store today...  

Preview by Purnima Malhotra

It hasn't been the homecoming Royal Challengers Bengaluru wished for and come Thursday the defending champions would be eager to turn things around against bottom-placed Gujarat Giants, a rematch of the run-fest that was the WPL 2025 curtain raiser.

Both teams are heading into the game after two straight losses. Hosts RCB went down to Mumbai Indians in a final-over thriller in their first home game of the season, and then to UP Warriorz in the competition's first-ever Super Over. It was Sophie Ecclestone's all-round skills this time around that stunned a packed M Chinnaswamy into silence. In both those defeats Ellyse Perry batted out of her skin, amidst regular wickets falling at the other end, to put on a par score for the team. However, RCB's death-overs woes saw them concede two games - and four crucial points - in a few costly tactical callsat the backend.

The lack of bigger, more consistent batting efforts is another area of concern for the holders. Barring the win against Delhi Capitals, the openers have blown hot and cold and haven't provided a consistent opening platform. It has left Perry to play the long game with the only other notable contributions having come from Richa Ghosh. Perry has carried her role to perfection, shouldering the batting responsibility, and her return to bowling duties with a 1 for 10 in a two-over spell in the last fixture. A welcome relief for RCB who have been hit the hardest in that department with pre-season injuries and withdrawals.

Giants, meanwhile, have even deeper batting concerns. With skipper Ash Gardner's form also fizzling out, the top-order hasn't exactly fired in unison in any game barring maybe the season opener where, unfortunately for them, even a 200+ score fell short as RCB registered a record chase with consummate ease. What's heartening for Giants would be the dogfight the lower-order - mostly the domestic talent - have shown to take their team to respectable totals and give themselves a fighting chance in both their losses to MI and DC. A week-long gap between those two fixtures did them no good either.

When: Thursday, February 27 at 7:30 PM IST

Where: M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru

What to expect: The dew hasn't been as much of a factor in Bengaluru, but the captains have opted to chase here with a new pitch in play every game. Expect the trend to continue, with totals in the range of 170-180 emerging as par-scores.

Team News

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: With Perry now available to chip in a few overs, if not her full quota of four, RCB swapped out a pacer for an extra, experienced offspinner in Sneh Rana, who previously played for the Giants in the WPL. Expect them to retain the XI despite the crushing loss.

Probable XI: Smriti Mandhana (C), Danielle Wyatt-Hodge, Ellyse Perry, Raghavi Bist, Richa Ghosh, Kanika Ahuja, Georgia Wareham, Sneh Rana, Kim Garth, Ekta Bisht, Renuka Thakur

Gujarat Giants: They booted their under-performing opener Laura Wolvaardt for Phoebe Litchfeld in the last game but with no luck. They Australian would likely get another go. Bharti Fulmali came in the last game and immediately made an impact with the bat, and would also retain her spot in the XI.

Probable XI: Beth Mooney (wk), Phoebe Litchfield, Harleen Deol, Ashleigh Gardner (C), Deandra Dottin, Simran Shaikh, Tanuja Kanwer, Bharti Fulmali, Kashvee Gautam, Meghna Singh, Priya Mishra

Squads:

Gujarat Giants Women Squad: Beth Mooney(w), Harleen Deol, Phoebe Litchfield, Ashleigh Gardner(c), Kashvee Gautam, Deandra Dottin, Tanuja Kanwar, Bharti Fulmali, Simran Shaikh, Meghna Singh, Priya Mishra, Danielle Gibson, Mannat Kashyap, Shabnam Md Shakil, Prakashika Naik, Dayalan Hemalatha, Sayali Satghare, Laura Wolvaardt

Royal Challengers Bengaluru Women Squad: Smriti Mandhana(c), Danielle Wyatt-Hodge, Ellyse Perry, Richa Ghosh(w), Kanika Ahuja, Georgia Wareham, Kim Garth, Raghvi Bist, Sneh Rana, Ekta Bisht, Renuka Singh Thakur, Sabbhineni Meghana, Nuzhat Parween, Heather Graham, Charlotte Dean, Jagravi Pawar, Prema Rawat, Joshitha VJ