Royal Challengers Bengaluru Women (Playing XI): Smriti Mandhana(c), Charlotte Dean, Ellyse Perry, Raghvi Bist, Richa Ghosh(w), Kanika Ahuja, Georgia Wareham, Kim Garth, Sneh Rana, Renuka Singh Thakur, Sabbhineni Meghana

Deepti Sharma: Today is a special day. But there is disappointment that we are not going ahead in the tournament. We have two changes. We have picked our XIs according to the conditions.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru Women have won the toss and have opted to field

Smriti Mandhana: We would like to field first today.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru Women have won the toss and have opted to field

Pitch and Conditions: "We are using pitch number 3 tonight. Let's get those dimensions - 51 and 59 meters square, straight hit is 66 meters. That is something for the fielding side to content with. It is a surface that has been used before and it did seem to slightly help the spinners on that occasion. It looks nice and hard, it has been nicely rolled. It is a red-soil surface and that's the reason we saw the spinners have a field day. Even tonight we can expect the same thing to continue. The spinners have done well at this venue because they have bowled at the right speeds. The batters will aim for the shorter boundaries but that is where the opportunities are for the spinners. Kerr picked up a 5-fer in the previous game. We saw dew play a part and side's batting first will face a tricky situation about what would be a good score," reckon Natalie Germanos and WV Raman.

[b]18:30 Local Time, 13:00 GMT: A win for the Gujarat Giants last night has put Royal Challengers Bengaluru in a precarious position - they not only have to win their remaining two games but have to win it by a big margin and hope a couple of other results go their way. The defending champions started their campaign with consecutive wins but lost all four games at home and are currently placed fourth. Will moving away from the Chinnaswamy bring back their luck? We'll find out.. UP Warriorz became the first team to be eliminated from WPL 2025. It has been a forgettable season. Deepti Sharma, who took over the captaincy reins, was the MVP last year but has been a shadow of herself and that has reflected on her side's performances. However they have one last opportunity to finish the season on a high and also take RCB down with them. And ICYMI, the last time these two teams met it was a tie and the Warriorz won the Super Over. Another Super Over tonight? Toss and teams coming up.. Stay tuned

Preview

Four straight defeats at home have left Royal Challengers Bengaluru on the brink of replicating their dubious record from the inaugural season, and there's no team that better understands what such a winless streak does to playoffs qualification. Coincidentally, it was against the UP Warriorz in WPL 2023 that RCB had broken the jinx finally, and they'd be hoping to prolong the hosts' misery this time in a bid to revive their chances of a top-three finish on Saturday.

RCB had the unwavering support of about a 28,000-strong crowd on average during the Bengaluru leg, but it was the pitch and conditions that nullified their home advantage. Losing all four tosses didn't help, but their over-reliance on Ellyse Perry shone bright across the four games, whether RCB admit it or not. On one hand is Perry with her "inhumane effort" and season's second-highest tally of 295 runs at an average of 98.3 in six outings, invariably swapping out the RCB red for the tournament Orange Cap every outing. And on the other is the rest of the top-four totalling 358 runs at 22.37 in the season. Take out Mandhana's match-winning 81 against or Danni Wyatt-Hodge's maiden fifty against UPW from that total, it paints a worrisome picture.

Top-order woes are a common theme across the board. In the last four games, Warriorz have changed their opening combination thrice around Grace Harris, and with the maiden half-century of Georgia Voll, they may have finally settled on the Australian pair. The inequitable interspersion of domestic talent and experienced international stars had already caused irreparable damage in the first half, often leaving their power-hitters too much to do at the end. On days they were able to pull it off - like Chinelle Henry's assault on Delhi capitals or Sophie Ecclestone's heist against RCB - it made for two of the most thrilling contests of this edition, but Warriorz have struggled largely on either side of those successive wins.

On paper, only NRR separates RCB (-0.244) and UPW (-0.785) but RCB do have a game in hand - in Mumbai on the last night of the round-robin stage. Their defeat to Gujarat Giants in their homecoming had left Warriorz only mathematically hanging in the playoffs equation, and requiring favour from other teams. That is, if they can first do themselves a favour and sign off their inconsistent season on a high with a win against RCB to jump up in the standings

When: Saturday, March 8 at 7:30 PM IST

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

What to expect: Dew is back in the conversations at WPL 2025, and given its heavy presence in the evenings in Lucknow at this time of the year, the opting-to-chase trend will continue in all likelihood.

Team News

UP Warriorz

In her two games for UPW late in WPL 2025, Gouher Sultana has bowled one over and leaked 16 in that. She might make way for a like-for-like Rajeshwari Gayakwad, if not an additional pacer.

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

Royal Challengers Bengaluru

In the post-match chat with the broadcaster, skipper Mandhana brushed off the suggestion that RCB contemplated the tactical call to retire out Raghavi Bist against DC after her tepid start. Now, a week later, In do-or-die situation they might be desperate to ring in a change or two.

Probable XI: Smriti Mandhana (c), Danielle Wyatt-Hodge, Ellyse Perry, Raghvi Bist/S Meghana, Kanika Ahuja, Richa Ghosh (wk), Georgia Wareham, Kim Garth, Sneh Rana, Renuka Singh Thakur, Ekta Bisht/Prema Rawat

Squads:

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

UP Warriorz Women Squad: Grace Harris, Kiran Navgire, Georgia Voll, Vrinda Dinesh, Deepti Sharma(c), Shweta Sehrawat, Uma Chetry(w), Chinelle Henry, Sophie Ecclestone, Gouher Sultana, Kranti Goud, Poonam Khemnar, Arushi Goel, Anjali Sarvani, Saima Thakor, Alana King, Tahlia McGrath, Rajeshwari Gayakwad