Complete guide to Women's Premier League 2024, Part 1: Who won league matches 1-6, how & key match winners

Smriti Mandhana during WPL 2024 in Bengaluru (Image source: X/ @mandhana_smriti)

1. Shah Rukh Khan delivered the fireworks at Women's Premier League 2024 opening ceremony at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. And Alice Capsey (for the Delhi Capitals) and S. Sanjana (Mumbai Indians) lit up the Bengaluru night sky even brighter in the WPL opener that followed.

Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians played the inaugural match of the 2024 season on February 23. (Delhi Capitals were the runners up of WPL 2023. And Harmanpreet Kaur's Mumbai Indians, the 2023 title holders.) Mumbai Indians won the toss and opted to bowl first in the WPL 2024 season opener.

Alice Capsey's 53-ball 75 anchored the Capitals’ 171 for 5. Capsey also built two big partnerships: a 74-run third-wicket stand with Jemimah Rodrigues, following a 50-plus stand for the second wicket with captain Meg Lanning.

In the end, Mumbai won the match by four wickets, thanks to a final-ball six from batter S Sajana.

2. S. Sanjana, a debutant, smashed her first ball of the game – also her and the fixture’s last on the night – for a match-winning six, in the opening match of WPL 2024. Sajana, 28, is a batting allrounder from Kerala whom Mumbai bought in the December 9, 2023, auction for Rs 15 lakh. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur, named Player of the Match for her 34-ball 55, said, “We just wanted to look at the boundary options, and the good thing was a spinner came [to bowl], and we, as batters, everyone likes to face offspin.

“We were looking to finish the game in the first three balls but then [we were pegged back] after losing two wickets. But we had depth in the batting. We know everyone in our team can bat, so I think it is because of Sajana that I am standing here.”

3. Women's Premier League 2024’s second match saw Smriti Mandhana’s Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) take on the Alyssa Healy-led UP Warriorz (UPW) on Saturday, February 24, from 7.30pm, at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. RCB won against UPW by two runs.

4. RCB legspinner Asha Sobhana’s historic five-wicket haul against UP Warriorz (UPW) on Saturday made her the first Indian to achieve the feat in the Women’s Premier League (WPL). She celebrated each of the five wickets with a gesture – hands cupped around her eyes to form goggles. Asha later explained the genesis of the celebration: “I watch a lot of football. I am a fan of the Arsenal team. Being a fellow ‘Gooner’, I brought out the [Leandro] Trossard celebration."

In taking the five-for, Asha invited comparisons with former India legspinner and captain Anil Kumble. While Asha’s feat came in the second match of the WPL’s second season, Kumble got to his - 5 for 5 against Rajasthan Royals - in the second match of the second iteration of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2009.

Asha’s returns of 5 for 22 off her full allocation of four overs included the wickets of Vrinda Dinesh and Tahlia McGrath in the ninth over and Shweta Sehrawat, Grace Harris and Kiran Navgire – all in the momentum-changing 17th over.

5. WPL 2024 Delhi Capitals vs UP Warriorz: The fourth match of WPL 2024 was also the second match of the season for both teams - both were vying for their first points of the season, having lost their respective season openers by the barest of margins.

Capitals, who played reigning champions Mumbai Indians on February 23 in the season opener, went down by four wickets in a final-ball six from Mumbai allrounder S Sajana. For their first match in WPL 2024, UP Warriorz’s Deepti Sharma, the on-strike batter, could only scamper for a couple, with RCB scripting a two-run heist as uncapped Indian legspinner Asha Sobhana emerged Player of the Match for her 5 for 22, the first five-wicket haul by an Indian in the WPL.

Delhi Capitals emerged victorious in this match, beating the UP Warriorz by nine wickets, with 33 balls remaining. Chasing just 120, the Capitals cruised to the target in just 14.3 overs, thanks to Shafali Verma’s 43-ball blitz and a mammoth 119-run opening stand with captain Meg Lanning. Verma hit six fours and four sixes. Lanning made a 43-ball 51, getting out with just one run needed to win the match.

6. Gujarat Giants’ Kathryn Bryce was WPL 2024’s only associate player, that is, the sole representative from an International Cricket Council (ICC) Associate Member nation. The 26-year-old allrounder debuted for the Beth Mooney-led Gujarat Giants in their fixture against Harmanpreet Kaur’s Mumbai Indians at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Though Giants lost the match by five wickets, Bryce's 24-ball 25 helped take them past 120. Handed the ball in the third over, she also gave Giants the first breakthrough, claiming the wicket of MI opener Yastika Bhatia. She finished with figures of 3-1-22-1.

7. Preview | WPL 2024 Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Gujarat Giants on Tuesday, February 27: The two sides had finished on four points apiece at the inaugural edition to occupy the last two places on the WPL points table, but their 2024 campaign began differently. The Royal Challengers eked out a two-run victory. The Giants kicked off their season with a loss to Harmanpreet Kaur’s Mumbai Indians in their first game of WPL 2024 on Sunday. The five-wicket defeat meant the Giants copped a negative net run-rate of -0.801. They are currently placed where they had finished last season: fifth on the points table.

RCB won this match by 8 wickets, with 45 balls left.

8. Shafali Verma's fluency in Delhi Capitals: Shafali Verma, 20, struck an unbeaten 64 to guide Capitals to their first victory of WPL 2024, against the UP Warriorz on Monday evening. “To bowl at Shifu in the nets — sabko phod rahi hain woh, sabko,” teammate Yadav said in a chat with Verma on WPLT20.com, “and that’s showing in the matches, too.”

9. WPL 2024 Mumbai Indians vs UP Warriorz, the sixth match of WPL 2024, on February 28, saw Harmanpreet, the India captain, and Australia skipper Alyssa Healy facing off.

While Mumbai’s strength hinged on optimising their overseas pool and benefiting from the performance of their Indian talent, the Warriorz couldn't maximise either - until this match! UP Warriorz Women won by 7 wickets, with 21 balls remaining. UP's Kiran Navgire was Player of the Match.