The action in the 2025 Women’s Premier League (WPL) season continues as the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) take on the Delhi Capitals (DC) in a blockbuster encounter.
The two heavyweights have started their respective WPL campaigns with wins and will look to build on that momentum.
Ahead of the game, here are our match preview and predictions.
Women’s Premier League 2025 Match 4 | Delhi Capitals vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru | 19:30 IST, February 17
The Royal Challengers kicked off the 2025 WPL season in spectacular style, putting up a record chase to get on the points table early on. With the ball, however, all RCB bowlers went all over the park barring Renuka Singh, who stood out by chipping in with wickets with a decent economy rate, which will be a positive for captain Smriti Mandhana going forward. The RCB skipper knows there is plenty of experience in her bowling department with the likes of Kim Garth and Georgia Wareham, but with star all-rounder Ellyse Perry ruled out of bowling for the opening half of the WPL, the 28-year-old will need the young domestic bowlers to step up.
Chasing a mammoth 202, the RCB lost the experienced opening pair of Mandhana and Danni Wyatt-Hodge inside the opening two overs before fighting back through Perry, whose feisty rebuilding was completed by some late fireworks from Richa Ghosh and Kanika Ahuja, both of whom took apart the Gujarat Giants bowlers to complete a record WPL run chase.
On the other side, the Capitals bowlers were clinical as Shikha Pandey’s early strikes pegged the Mumbai Indians early on in their opening game. Annabel Sutherland was tight and among the wickets as well, with Meg Lanning moving her bowlers around in perfect sync.
The Capitals had a little bit of a hiccup while batting, though, as they chased 165 and needed a cameo from debutant and India’s latest U19 T20 World Cup–winning captain Niki Prasad to take them home. Shafali Verma’s explosive start will be a positive for the Capitals camp, while they know there is plenty of experience in the batting lineup that boasts the likes of Lanning, Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Sutherland, and Alice Capsey and can easily step up against any bowling attack.
The Vadodara strip has shown that it has plenty of runs with some assistance for the seamers early on. With two heavyweights clashing and featuring some of the best players in the world, we should be in for another exciting run fest. We hand the RCB a slight edge over the Capitals given their better squad depth.
Fantasy XI: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Jemimah Rodrigues, Ellyse Perry, Richa Ghosh, Niki Prasad, Renuka Singh, Annabel Sutherland, Shikha Pandey, Kim Garth
Venue: Vadodara, Gujarat
Winners Prediction: Royal Challengers Bengaluru
Also read: WPL 2025 Sponsors and Partners
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