Unchanged RCB opt to bowl, MI bring in Kerr for injured Carey

Toss Royal Challengers Bengaluru chose to bowl vs Mumbai Indians

Table-toppers Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) kept with the trending of WPL 2026 and chose to bowl, eyeing a place in the final with a win against Mumbai Indians (MI). Captain Smriti Mandhana said dew was expected again in Vadodara and going forward they wanted to understand their par score.

While RCB were unchanged, MI made one change of bringing in Amelia Kerr for the injured Nicola Carey. Until today, Carey was the only MI overseas player to have played all of MI's games. She had picked up a niggle while batting in their previous game, against Delhi Capitals, and had been under doubt after bowling only one over in that match.

MI have been struggling with injury woes all through the tournament. Allrounder Hayley Matthews missed the first few games with a shoulder niggle before Nat Sciver-Brunt missed one with illness, and an injury scare for S Sajana too while diving at the boundary in the previous game.

RCB are currently at the top of the table, having lost only their last game, whereas MI are coming on the back of three consecutive losses and are currently second from bottom. But among the four teams in contention for the remaining two knockout spots, MI are the only team with a positive net run rate.

MI are almost in must-win territory, although if they lose tonight, they won't be out of the race yet. But a big defeat to RCB will seriously dent their qualification chances as it will bring their NRR down significantly, and they will heavily rely on other teams' results to go their way.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: 1 Grace Harris, 2 Smriti Mandhana (capt), 3 Georgia Voll, 4 Gautami Naik, 5 Richa Ghosh (wk), 6 Radha Yadav, 7 Nadine de Klerk, 8 Sayali Satghare, 9 Arundhati Reddy, 10 Shreyanka Patil, 11 Lauren Bell

Mumbai Indians: 1 S Sajana, 2 Hayley Matthews, 3 Nat Sciver-Brunt, 4 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 5 Amelia Kerr, 6 Amanjot Kaur, 7 Sanskriti Gupta, 8 Poonam Khemnar, 9 Rahila Firdous (wk), 10 Shabnim Ismail, 11 Vaishnavi Sharma