The Women’s Premier League (WPL), season three will see a thrilling rematch of last season’s final as Delhi Capitals (DC) take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) today at the Kotambi Stadium, Vadodara. Both teams won their opening matches and will look to carry that momentum forward.
DC have dominated this fixture historically, leading 4-1 in head-to-head battles. However, RCB’s only win came in last year’s final while chasing a modest target. In DC’s four victories, they won three times batting first and only once while chasing. The match will feature top players from both sides, but all eyes will be on DC opener Shafali Verma.
Shafali was recently dropped from the Indian team in both white-ball formats. She was dumped from the shortest format of the game despite scoring 531 runs in 19 T20I innings at an average of 33.18 and a strike rate of 126.73 in 2024.
However, she responded strongly in domestic cricket, amassing 414 runs and taking five wickets in the Senior Women’s One Day Challenger Trophy for India A, including a century and three fifties. She followed it up with 527 runs and eight wickets in seven innings for Haryana in the Senior Women’s One-Day Trophy.
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In WPL history, Shafali is currently the third-highest run-scorer with 604 runs in 19 innings at an average of 35.52 and a staggering strike rate of 172.07, including five fifties. She is also DC’s second-highest run-getter and has an impressive record against RCB, scoring 201 runs at an average of 40.20 and a strike rate of 164.75. That includes two half-centuries.
She started this season well, smashing a quickfire 43 off 18 balls against Mumbai Indians (MI). Her explosive knock helped DC reach 60 runs in just 5.5 overs, setting up the chase perfectly.
In fact, in her last three WPL innings, Shafali has maintained an incredible strike rate of over 192.00. It is clear that DC’s team management has given her the license to attack in the powerplay and score as quickly as possible. However, despite her success, a noticeable pattern has emerged in her dismissals.
In her last four WPL innings, she has been dismissed only by spinners, whether early in her innings or after getting set. Against RCB last season, all three of her dismissals came against spin. Additionally, she has often fallen in the mid-wicket to deep mid-wicket region, where teams have set up a trap for her.
Shafali’s go-to shots against spin include the slog sweep and cross-batted pull, especially when bowlers keep it on a length or short. But since last season, she has been caught in the deep mid-wicket region multiple times.
In the previous game, she attempted to loft Hayley Matthews’ quicker, flatter delivery over mid-on but ended up chipping it between mid-on and mid-wicket. In last season’s final, she gave DC a flying start with 44 off 27 balls, but in the eighth over, Sophie Molineux trapped her with a slog sweep that went straight to Georgia Wareham at deep mid-wicket. A similar dismissal happened in DC’s first game vs RCB last season when she scored 50 off 31 before hitting a Shreyanka Patil delivery straight to Wareham at deep mid-wicket.
Opponents have clearly figured out that denying Shafali room and forcing her to play towards deep mid-wicket increases their chances of dismissing her. RCB’s spinners—Prema Rawat, Sneh Rana, Wareham, and Kanika Ahuja—will likely use the same tactic again today. Can Shafali overcome this challenge and deliver?
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