Four teams battling it out for two playoffs berths

A fortnight has passed since the Women’s Premier League got off to an explosive start, with Harmanpreet Kaur playing a blinder at Navi Mumbai’s D.Y. Patil Stadium. Mumbai Indians won the opening match against Gujarat Giants by a huge margin.

MI is still unbeaten, having won five matches on the trot. It is the only team to have ensured a place in the playoffs, and it did that with three matches still in hand.

After a day’s break, the WPL resumes on Saturday, with all the other teams theoretically having a chance to claim one of the two remaining playoffs spots. Of them, Delhi Capitals, despite its loss to Gujarat Giants in a low-scoring, close encounter on Thursday, looks the likeliest to progress, having won four matches.

Royal Challengers Bangalore, on the other hand, will not only need to win both its remaining games but also have the matches involving other teams go its way. A tall order indeed for a side that shone the brightest at the auction but has been able to win only one game, that too after losing the first five.

UP Warriorz and Giants have won two games each, but the former has played a game less. The remaining fixtures in the league phase promises better battles between bat and ball, with wickets at both venues — Brabourne and D.Y. Patil — increasingly becoming more sporting from the absolute roads they were at the beginning.

On Saturday: Mumbai Indians vs UP Warriorz (3.30 p.m.); Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Gujarat Giants (7.30 p.m.).

Four teams battling it out for two playoffs berths

Mumbai Indians, which has already made the grade, is still unbeaten, having won five matches on the trot