Chandigarh: Defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) will take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the first match of the fourth season of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) which will start in Navi Mumbai on January 9. The final will be held in Vadodara on February 5.
The 28-day-long tournament will be played across two venues: Navi Mumbai, where India won the ODI World Cup beating South Africa in the final, and Vadodara.
The Navi Mumbai leg, running from January 9 to 17, will feature 11 matches. The league then moves to Vadodara, which will host the remaining 11 fixtures, including the playoffs. League matches will continue until 1 February ahead of a scheduled break day.
The Eliminator, featuring the second and third teams, will be held on February 3. The league table toppers will progress directly to the final which unlike previous editions has been scheduled on a weekday, Thursday.
For the first time, the WPL will begin in January. This has been done to accommodate the competition before the men’s T20 World Cup which runs from February 7 to March 8.
Harmanpreet Kaur led-MI have won two of the three editions so far with RCB, captained by Smriti Mandhana, winning once. Delhi Capitals (DC) have been runners-up in all three seasons. Gujarat Giants and UP Warriorz complete the line-up.
India will host Sri Lanka for five women’s T20Is from December 21 to 30, ahead of WPL. It is also learnt that 10 days after the WPL, India will start an all-format tour of Australia, playing three T20Is, three ODIs and a Test from February 15 to March 9.
Kaur stand
After former Indian captains Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami, Kaur, the current India women’s team skipper, will have a stand named after her at the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) Stadium in New Chandigarh.
“I have received a letter from PCA saying that they will soon unveil a stand after me at New Chandigarh,” she said at a show organised in New Delhi on Friday.
PCA is likely to organise the unveiling during the T20I against South Africa on December 11 at the New Chandigarh stadium. It will be New Chandigarh stadium’s first ever International T20 match.
Kaur, who made her India debut in 2009, has scored over 8,000 runs for India across formats to go with 75 wickets.
