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Here’s your comprehensive guide on the previous seasons of the Women’s Premier League.
RCB are the defending WPL champions. (BCCI Photo)
The third season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) is set to get underway on February 14. The T20 competition will be hosted across four venues in Vadodara, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Lucknow.
The cricket extravaganza will be inaugurated with a high-voltage clash between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Gujarat Giants at the Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara. RCB, under the captaincy of Smriti Mandhana, hope to start the campaign on a positive note after securing their first WPL title last season. They defeated Delhi Capitals by eight wickets in the 2024 final.
Harmanpreet Kaur’s Mumbai Indians became the champions of the first edition. They also beat Delhi in the summit clash.
Let’s take a look at what happened in the previous two seasons of the franchise tournament –
WPL 2023:
Mumbai Indians pulled off a roaring start, notching a commanding 143-run win over Gujarat Giants. They continued the winning momentum in the next four matches before enduring the first defeat to UP Warriorz.
The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side failed to overcome the Warriorz in the return leg as well. They lost their penultimate league game to Delhi Capitals but finished second in the standings with 12 points.
Mumbai met UP Warriorz in the Eliminator and this time, they dominated the proceedings. With Nat Sciver-Brunt registering an unbeaten 72, MI produced 182 and eventually, won the knockout fixture by 72 runs.
DC who topped the group stage directly qualified for the final. MI put up an excellent bowling show and restricted their opponents to 131 runs in the summit clash.
Nat Sciver-Brunt once again emerged as Mumbai’s top-performing batter. The English all-rounder remained unbeaten at 60 while Harmanpreet Kaur contributed 37 to chase down the target in 19.3 overs.
WPL 2024:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru were desperate to bounce back after finishing at the bottom of the table in the first season. They, however, managed only three victories in the first seven group matches. In the last game, RCB beat MI by seven wickets to secure a spot in the play-off.
The two teams went head-to-head in the knockout game and Bengaluru once again outplayed Mumbai to progress to the final.
Delhi Capitals faced a batting collapse in the summit showdown. They were bundled out for 113 runs, with Shreyanka Patil and Sophie Molineux combining for seven wickets. RCB were not troubled much during the chase and wrapped up the game with three balls in hand.
