Ismail to Georgia Voll, FOUR, there's the first boundary. Ismail goes short and Voll is not troubled, she does get the pull high on the bat but she clears the inner circle comfortably and the ball races to deep square leg

Ismail to Grace Harris, 1 run, good length ball around off, Harris angles it with an open bat face to third man

Ismail to Georgia Voll, 1 run, to deep square leg

Slip in place

Ismail to Georgia Voll, no run, on a length and outside off, Voll punches and picks out cover-point

Ismail to Grace Harris, 1 run, to short third man

Grace Harris and Georgia Voll are at the crease. Grace Harris is on strike. Ismail will open the attack

The players are making their way out to the middle. A new opening pair for the Warriorz as the two Aussies - Grace Harris and Georgia Voll - walk out.

In this season, teams winning the toss have chose to bowl in all 16 games so far and they won 13 of those 15 previous games.

Teams:

Mumbai Indians Women (Playing XI): Yastika Bhatia(w), Hayley Matthews, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Amelia Kerr, Sajeevan Sajana, G Kamalini, Amanjot Kaur, Sanskriti Gupta, Shabnim Ismail, Parunika Sisodia

UP Warriorz Women (Playing XI): Grace Harris, Kiran Navgire, Georgia Voll, Vrinda Dinesh, Deepti Sharma(c), Shweta Sehrawat, Uma Chetry(w), Chinelle Henry, Sophie Ecclestone, Gouher Sultana, Kranti Goud

Mumbai Indians Women (Playing XI): Yastika Bhatia(w), Hayley Matthews, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Amelia Kerr, Sajeevan Sajana, G Kamalini, Amanjot Kaur, Sanskriti Gupta, Shabnim Ismail, Parunika Sisodia

Deepti Sharma: We also wanted to bowl first. The wicket looks different from the last surface and it might help the spinners. Whatever suits the team that's the batting line-up we are going with. Same team.

Mumbai Indians Women have won the toss and have opted to field

Harmanpreet Kaur: We are gonna bowl first. We saw some seam movement in the last game and that's the reason. Amanjot has done really well, Sankriti is coming up well. We have one change.

Mumbai Indians Women have won the toss and have opted to field

Pitch and Conditions: "The other night we had a really good strip here. It played beautifully. It is a new pitch and we have moved to pitch no. 5. The dimensions - 58 and 51 meters square and 65 meters straight. Today's surface is a red soil surface, it is pretty hard and there is fair bit of grass covering on it. Not much help for the spinners but it is going to aid the seamers in the powerplay. As the evening progresses there's a chill in the air and a light breeze blowing across the ground, I think that is the reason the seamers are getting lot more movement but all in all it is a good wicket to bat. Even 180 is possible on this wicket provided the batters play through the line. Red soil is perfect for batting, we have played our domestic cricket on red soil and it is a batting paradise," inform Natalie Germanos and Mithali Raj.

18:30 Local Time, 13:00 GMT: After a two-day break, the WPL is back and we are still in Lucknow where the next phase of the tournament is taking place. The home side UP Warriorz are taking on Mumbai Indians. It has been an inconsistent campaign for the Warriorz and they're into the do or die territory. They have registered two wins but in general it's been a struggle and their performances mirrors that of their skipper Deepti Sharma who's had a pretty ordinary season herself. They have two games left and both are at home, so it would be a boost to have the crowd behind them. Mumbai Indians, on the other hand, have been their regular consistent best; their only losses have come against the Delhi Capitals and they beat the Warriorz in their previous encounter by a convincing margin of 8 wickets. However, they are coming into this fixture on the back of a defeat and would look to get back to winning ways. Toss and teams coming up.. Stay tuned

Preview

Their playoffs hopes hanging by a thread, UP Warriorz have an uphill task of turning their campaign around against a hurting Mumbai Indians when the WPL 2025 action resumes on Thursday (March 6) in Lucknow.

Warriorz began the tournament with back to back heavy defeats in Vadodara before the turnaround in Bengaluru when they became the first team in WPL 2025 to defend a score - against the now-qualified Delhi Capitals. They then won the first-ever Super Over in the competition after an all-round act from Sophie Ecclestone stunned RCB and its partisan crowd. However, they've gone on to lose two games since to plummet to the bottom of the points table - tied with RCB on four points each but with a worrying NRR of -0.786.

Beth Mooney soiled the Warriorz homecoming with 96* to set up Gujarat Giants' 186, making it only the second instance this season of a successful run-defence. On a true wicket, Warriorz struggled in both departments and were also guilty of underutisiling their resources. The bowlers had an off day with only Chinelle Henry managing an economy under 8 RPO, where as veteran left-arm spinner Gouher Sultana wasn't used at all despite being brought in at the expense of a pacer (Saima Thakor).

UP's constantly-changing batting order too found no heroes to put their hand up in a tall chase. Only Henry and Ecclestone - batting at no. 8 and 9 respectively - managed a strike-rate above 100. Henry has struck at an impressive strike-rate of 210 but has managed only 138 runs in five outings - a function of her low batting position. Despite this red-hot hitting form, she hasn't seen the batting promotion she deserves which could actually take care of the team's middle-order woes.

Speaking of middle-order heft, the pair of Nat Sciver-Brunt (272, 2nd rank) and Harmanpreet Kaur (133 runs, 13th) have done the bulk of scoring for the inaugural champions. They opening pair of Hayley Matthews and Yastika Bhatia have failed to provide solid platforms, and have been separated within the PowerPlay in all five matches so far. They've only put on 73 runs in 5 innings, and on three occasions it's been single-digit partnerships with Bhatia especially struggling to get going on her return from finger fracture. Matthews, however, has shown signs of comeback with her first fifty of the season in the reverse fixture in Bengaluru. The runs of Amelia Kerr, their no. 5, have also dried up this year, putting the onus, and more pressure, on the captain and vice-captain duo.

MI's three-match winning streak was brought to a screeching halt with a crushing nine-wicket loss Delhi Capitals inflicted on them to pull off a double against them. With a top-two finish in sight, Mumbai wouldn't want to leave too much to do towards the last leg - at home for them - where their last-two round-robin fixtures are on consecutive nights.

When: Thursday, March 6 at 7:30 PM IST

Where: Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow

What to expect: Contrary to the trend this WPL, Lucknow has seen batting-first team winning 10 out of the 15 women's T20 games played here, including GG comfortably defending their 186 against the hosts two nights ago. Giants' pace bowlers Kashvee Gautam and Deandra Dottin stood out despite the tendency of the venue to favour the slower bowlers.

Team News

UP Warriorz: The home team eventually dropped Tahlia McGrath and drafted in replacement player Georgia Voll straightaway into their XI, and the Australian top-order batter will likely keep her place despite a duck on WPL debut. Warriorz also brought in Gouher Sultana but did not use her services at all. It's likely they'll swap her out for an extra pace option that they would have felt short of in conceding 186 to GG.

Probable XI: Kiran Navgire, Grace Harris, Georgia Voll, Vrinda Dinesh, Deepti Sharma (c), Shweta Sehrawat, Chinelle Henry, Uma Chetry (wk), Sophie Ecclestone, Kranti Goud, Gouher Sultana/Saima Thakor

Mumbai Indians: Find of the first season, Saika Ishaque hasn't featured in WPL 2025 after the beating she took in MI's season opener against DC. Against a right-heavy UPW she might get a look in at the expense of either Sanskriti Gupta or Jintimani Kalita, who have both only been used for a maximum of a couple of overs thus far.

Probable XI: Hayley Matthews, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Nat Sciver-Brunt, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Amelia Kerr, Amanjot Kaur, Sajeevan Sajana, G Kamalini, Sanskriti Gupta, Shabnim Ismail, Jintimani Kalita/Saika Ishaque