WPL 2024 to start in February with a home-away format
After a successful inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL) in 2023, the next season to start off with a bang in a home and away format. The tournament will most likely commence in February 2024 with five teams participating in the tournament, just like last year.
The Indian womens cricket team has been playing very good cricket over the last few years. They have done well in the last few multi nations tournaments and made their nations proud.
BCCI has also now giving attention to women’s cricket in India for some time now. They have given lots of opportunities to women cricketers and started some new domestic tournaments for the betterment of women’s cricket in India.
Now, Women’s cricket in India and all over the world has a dedicated audience and will keep growing as they play well.
After the women’s team’s good performances over the years, they started WPL (Women’s Premier League). Now, BCCI’s secretary, Jay Shah announced that the next three seasons of the WPL will be a home and away format. The purpose of this is to build a better fanbase for women’s cricket.
BCCI gets huge success in the inaugural season
The first season was held from March 04 to 26 earlier this year. Before that, the BCCI also had a tournament called the Women’s T20 Challenge with three teams; called as Velocity, Supernovas, and Trailblazers. But they started WPL and got good results in terms of viewership.
Obviously, it is not as big as the men’s IPL. But the audience will keep growing as they give more opportunities to the women’s cricketers.
The tournament had 5 teams; called as Royal Challengers (RCB), Mumbai Indians (MI), Delhi Capitals (DC), UP Warriorz (UPW), and Gujarat Giants (GG). Mumbai based franchise won the inaugural title by beating Delhi Capitals in the final by 7 wickets.
WPL 2023 was won by Mumbai Indians Womens Team
DC won the toss and opted to bat first. They lost three wickets inside the first powerplay. There was a partnership between Captain Lanning and Kapp of 38 runs, but DC hasn’t got the momentum in the first inning.
They only managed to put 131 runs on the board. That too because of the last wicket partnership of 51 runs between Radha Yadav and Shikha Pandey. The former scored 27 off 12 balls while the latter scored 27 off 17 balls.
When MI came out to chase the target, they also lost two wickets early. But then Nat Sciver Brunt and captain Harmanpreet Kaur build a strong match winning partnership for the 3rd wicket. The pair added 72 runs and stabilise the inning.
When Harmanpreet got out, Nat Sciver Brunt and M Kerr got the team over the line. Nat remains not out on 60 off 55 balls and M Kerr remains not out on 14 off 8 balls. Captain Harmanpreet also scored a crucial 37 off 39 balls. MI W won the game by 7 wickets and 3 balls remaining. Nat Sciver Brunt was the man of the match for her 60 not out.
Highest run scorer and highest wicket taker
In the WPL 2023, Meg Lanning scored 345 runs with an average of 49.29 and a strike rate of 139.11, making her the highest run scorer.
Hayley Matthews was the highest wicket taker in WPL 2023 with 16 wickets in 10 games. Sophie Ecclestone also took 16 wickets but Hayley’s bowling average was better than Sophie’s. Her average was 12.62 and Sophie’s average was 14.69.
Womens Premier League (WPL) 2024
BCCI announced the 2nd season of WPL on February 2024 in a home-and-away format. Unlike WPL 2023, which was played across two venues in Mumbai.
Some reports also suggested the information about the ongoing discussions which lead to the postponement of the WPL to later in the year, around Diwali. But nothing has been confirmed yet.
BCCI secretary Jay Shah said- “We are mulling the possibility of scheduling the WPL 2024 in a home and away format in the Diwali window. We won’t have two seasons in a year but just a different time window. Women’s cricket now has a dedicated audience and this number will only keep growing as we expect an encouraging turnout at the next WPL.”
Still, there is time for WPL 2024 to start. But we are excited to see how this time tournament goes. With a home and away format, it will be more interesting to see. What do you think? Will it work in favor of women’s cricket? And who is your favorite women’s cricketer from the WPL 2023? Comment your answer below.
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