Preview: Ashleigh Gardner’s Gujarat Giants eye revenge against Smriti Mandhana’s unyielding Challengers

The second leg of the WPL begins at Vadodara with the Royal Challengers leading the head-to-head record 4-3 against GG. In the Navi Mumbai fixture, RCB rallied behind Radha Yadav and Richa Ghosh’s flourishing batting, which was followed by Shreyanka Patil’s brilliance with the off-spin.

In their next match, RCB brought in Georgia Voll, Prema Rawat, and Sayali Satghare for the match against Delhi Capitals. While Voll struck an unbeaten 54, Satghare and Rawat picked up three and two wickets respectively. It was the Challengers’ skipper, Smriti Mandhana, whose quickfire 96(61) helped her team chase down a modest 166 with ten balls to spare.

For Gujarat these are testing times to see if they can get back to winning ways. It was their skipper Ash Gardner, whose unbeaten 79 in last year’s Vadodara counter had helped Gujarat put up 201, before Ellyse Perry, Richa Ghosh, and Kanika Ahuja overcame the total. While her form with the bat has been decent, Gardner has relatively under-bowled herself, and managed only a wicket in four matches.

The Giants have been heavily reliant on Beth Mooney and Sophie Devine at the top who have indeed delivered per expectations. Both players have managed the first 40 runs of their team’s innings within four overs. Devine has been a force to reckon with, being the team’s top scorer. While the Kiwi’s economy has been of concern, she has been a partnership breaker in most instances.

Lauren Bell has been impressive thus far, being the third-highest wicket-taker of the tournament and the best economy rate (5.31). However, she hasn’t had the best record against Mooney in T20s. Shreyanka did manage a five-wicket haul against Gujarat, but was hammered for 44 in 3 overs in their next match against Delhi.

For Gujarat, their middle order would expect one of Kanika Ahuja, Georgia Wareham, or Ashleigh Gardner, anchor the innings forwards. The Royal Challengers though would need to chalk out a plan against Bharti Fulmali’s firepower, who has power surged the Giants at the tail end of the innings.

Toss will play a crucial role in Vadodara. The chasing side has won all six WPL matches held at the venue. The results for Gujarat Giants have been paradoxical in this regard. The first two matches saw them defend 200+ totals by close margins, before Mumbai Indians chased down 192 against them. Later, in the RCB fixture they were all out on 150 while chasing 183.

Nothing has gone wayward for the Royal Challengers Bangalore thus far. Radha Yadav and Nadine de Klerk have been silently operating with the bat and bowl in crucial stages of the match. Grace Harris and Smriti Mandhana make a formidable opening pair, and Richa Ghosh provides the pinch hitting needed towards the end. With Voll, Satghare, and Rawat impressing in their latest match against the Delhi Capitals, it would be interesting to see what eleven RCB decide upon.

The Giants bowling hasn’t been as effective. Renuka Singh Thakur, who is known for being economical has disappointed by her started in the previous two games. Apart from the drought in wickets, she has conceded runs at an economy of 10 in the last couple of games. Kashvee Gautam has had moments of glory but has failed to capitalise on it. Gardner herself has rolled her arm far too less in the opening four matches, and will hope the toss flips in her favor and they get to bowl first in front of their home crowd.

Apart from that one match wherein RCB chased 202 against GG in the season opener last year, the average first innings score at Vadodara’s Kotambi Stadium has been a modest 156. With the mercury expected to drop to 19°C and dew to affect the outfield, bowling first would appear as the winning formula.

Beth Mooney(wk), Sophie Devine, Georgia Wareham, Anushka Sharma, Ashleigh Gardner, Kanika Ahuja, Bharti Fulmali, Tanuja Kanwar, Kashvee Gautam, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Renuka Singh Thakur.

Grace Harris, Smriti Mandhana, Georgia Voll, Richa Ghosh (wk), Radha Yadav, Nadine de Klerk, Gautami Nayak/Pratyoosha Kumar Sayali Satghare, Prema Rawat, Shreyanka Patil, Lauren Bell