Fired-up UP Warriorz eye double over Mumbai

Two-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) have looked close to their A game in their four matches so far, while bottom-placed UP Warriorz (UPW) have mostly struggled to match their prowess on paper. But such is this format, and such are the oddities of a five-team tournament, that one more win for UPW and the two teams will be level (barring the NRR difference) on the points table.

With a new leader in Meg Lanning, UPW started their campaign with three successive losses, an unsettled batting line-up, and the contentious retiring out of Harleen Deol. In meeting MI again on Saturday - in a day game - before the teams head off to Vadodara for the second leg of the tournament, UPW will hope to repeat their show from Thursday when they turned up fired up in all three departments.

MI, whose two wins seem a little distant now, have issues right at the top. G Kamalini's returns have diminished steadily since her 32 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the tournament-opener, and she has had three opening partners in four matches. After Amelia Kerr's struggles early on, MI brought in Hayley Matthews, then left her out in their last match and tried Amanjot Kaur up the order. Amanjot and Kamalini missed and edged plenty of times against both swing and spin in a powerplay that brought just 32 runs.

MI will also need to pick up their bowling. They kept offering width, and Deol, who scored a match-winning unbeaten 64, kept lapping it up. MI will seek confidence from the fact that they have taken the most wickets of any team (before Friday's match) so far this WPL - nearly twice as many as UPW's 13 - and hope their all-overseas international bowlers start striking regularly again.

Amanjot opened the batting but didn't bowl in MI's last game because of a niggle that almost gave a WPL debut to pace-bowling allrounder Kranthi Reddy. If she isn't fit for Saturday's game, MI will have more woes at the top. The other big question is if they would want to fit in Matthews at least to add some fire at the top. Will they think of leaving out Kerr, among their most expensive bowlers in their last two matches?

Mumbai Indians (possible): 1 Amanjot Kaur, 2 G Kamalini (wk), 3 Nat Sciver-Brunt, 4 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 5 Nicola Carey, 6 Amelia Kerr, 7 S Sajana, 8 Poonam Khemnar, 9 Shabnim Ismail, 10 Sanskriti Gupta, 11 Triveni Vasistha.

UPW are looking close to nailing their ideal XI and may not want to make any changes. It remains to be seen if they continue with Kiran Navgire at the top or give a chance to G Trisha, the Player of the Final and Player of the Tournament from the Under-19 World Cup a year ago.

UP Warriorz (probable): 1 Meg Lanning (capt), 2 Kiran Navgire/G Trisha, 3 Phoebe Litchfield, 4 Harleen Deol, 5 Chloe Tryon, 6 Deepti Sharma, 7 Shweta Sehrawat, 8 Sophie Ecclestone, 9 Asha Sobhana, 10 Shikha Pandey, 11 Kranti Gaud.

UPW had a slow start but have a chance to go up the points table.

Both UPW and MI have had issues with an opening batter with a reputation for big hitting. UPW used the RTM for Kiran Navgire in the recent auction, and have re-invested in her at the top because she brings "real X-factor" according to mentor Lisa Sthalekar. Navigire has scored 1, 5, 0 and 10 so far this season, and, with the promising G Trisha waiting in the wings, will feel the pressure to deliver.

G Kamalini is in the same boat, and she looked as scratchy as she could have against the swing of Kranti Gaud and Shikha Pandey on Thursday. Her lack of footwork didn't help her either, and made 5 off 12 to go with scores of 16 and 13 in her last two games. As a wicketkeeper Kamalini has more insurance in MI's XI than Navgire has in UPW's, but the clock is ticking for her too.

The toss decision is a no-brainer in evening games, but the chances of batting first increase a little bit for a 3pm start. On an average, teams still prefer to chase in T20s, though. It will be hot, with temperatures in the early 30s when the game begins and falling only by a couple of degrees by the time it ends.

The ball has swung prodigiously for the last two days in Navi Mumbai, causing plenty of problems in the powerplay. It will be interesting to see if it swings in the afternoon too, with swing bowlers on both sides.