Complete guide to Women's Premier League 2024, Part 2: Shreyanka Patil, Grace Harris, Kiran Navgire & other leaders in #Queendom

Purple Cap RCB bowler Shreyanka Patil with the WPL 2024 trophy. (Image source: Mufaddal Vohra via X/@mufaddal_vohra)

1. Shreyanka Patil: Bengaluru ‘crowd chanting “RCB” and my name at WPL 2024 is special’: India and Royal Challengers Bangalore offspin-bowling allrounder Shreyanka Patil said: “I just love this energy (in the Bengaluru stadium)... since I was a kid, I used to sit amongst all this crowd and I used to be ‘RCB, RCB,’ and now being here inside the ground and people chanting ‘RCB’ and name is a special moment for me.”

The fingerspinner added: “I just wanted to be that bowler who can bowl in all three phases of the match. So, I just love bowling in the death because it's a different challenge: being an offspinner and bowling in the death is not easy. So, I took up that role because I love to do it and I think I'm doing a good job.”

Shreyanka Patil eventually helped RCB lift the WPL 2024 trophy, and won the WPL Purple Cap with 13 wickets.

2. RCB captain Smriti Mandhana lauds ‘calm’ Meghana’s ability to change gears: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Smriti Madhana heaped praise on her side’s No. 3 batter, S Meghana, who turned in two crucial knocks in the Royal Challengers’ consecutive victories in WPL 2024. After making a 44-ball 53 batting first in what proved a momentum-changing contribution in the Royal Challengers’ final-ball opening win against the UP Warriorz on Saturday, Meghana guided the team home with an unbeaten 28-ball 36 against Gujarat Giants on Tuesday. “Meghana has been a seasoned player in [the] domestic [set-up],” Mandhana told the host broadcaster in the post-match interview. “She's had a really good season domestically. And we've seen a little bit of her in the Indian set-up as well. So, for her to come in the last match, especially, I think she was just brilliant to take the team through and even with Richa [Ghosh] – her partnership last night (match) and even today, I think she was really calm. The best thing about her is that she can really strike at a good strike rate or even anchor the innings."

RCB aquired Meghana during the December 9 mini-auction at her base price of Rs 30 lakh after she was released by the Giants.

3. Gujarat Giants captain Mooney calls for timely utilisation of ‘high-percentage options’: Beth Mooney, captain of the Gujarat Giants, said a better scoring rate and more judicious strokeplay tailored to the match situation in each phase of play could help change the Adani-owned team’s fortunes after they opened their WPL 2024 campaign with two back-to-back defeats. “I think perhaps we are just not taking the high-percentage options at the right time,” she told the host broadcaster after Giants’ eight-wicket loss to the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday. “Obviously, only getting to 108 – it’s a pretty low score in T20 cricket these days, so we have got to look to score off a few more balls in that middle period and at the start. We need, obviously, wickets in the shed at the back end as well. So, if we can do that, we can put up a competitive total of 140 or 150.”

Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Giants faced-off in Match 3 of WPL 2024 on February 25; Mumbai won by five wickets, with 11 balls remaining. GG were chasing a score of 129, but fell short, making 126/9 in their 20 overs.

GG next faced RCB on February 27. They lost that match (Match 5 of WPL 2024) by eight wickets, with 45 balls remaining. RCB had won the toss and elected to bat first. They put up a total of 110, but the Giants fell short again - scoring 107/7 in their 20 overs.

4. Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Delhi Capitals: Meg Lanning’s Delhi Capitals faced then table toppers Royal Challengers Bangalore in the seventh match of WPL 2024 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Thursday, February 29.

Delhi Capitals Women put up a score of 194/5, and won by 9 wickets with 33 balls remaining.

5. WPL 2024 Gujarat Giants vs UP Warriorz: The eighth match of the second edition of the Women's Premier League (WPL) saw Gujarat Giants, led by Beth Mooney, take on Alyssa Healy’s UP Warriorz at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium on March 1, Friday.

6. Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bangalore:  Harmanpreet Kaur vs Smriti Mandhana – the two superstars of women’s cricket and the captain and vice-captain of the Indian team, respectively – squared off against each other in the ninth match of the second edition of the WPL on March 2, Saturday.

7. What you need to know about MS Dhoni fan Kiran Navgire of UP Warriorz: Kiran Navgire, the 29-year-old India international, is a big-hitting batter who plays for the UP Warriorz in the Women’s Premier League (WPL). She was bought by the Capri Global-owned franchise at her base price of Rs 30 lakh in the February 2023 auction.

In the inaugural edition, Navgire finished fourth on the Warriorz’s run-scoring list, with 155 runs from eight innings at an average of 19.37. Her highest score in that edition, 53 off 43 deliveries, came against the Gujarat Giants.

Across the league matches of WPL 2024, Navgire made scores of 1, 10, 57, 12, 18, 7, 5 and 0. Her fifty came in at the opening position and helped down defending champions Mumbai Indians. She was named Player of the Match for her exploits in that game - Match 6 of WPL 2024, which UP won by seven wickets with 21 balls remaining.

At the WPL, she had played the role largely of a middle-order batter until the game against Mumbai at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. She latched onto the opportunity with both hands. Her second shot in the opening position came against the Gujarat Giants on Friday. “I was told the previous day that I would have to open the batting, so I needed to be prepared …” she said after Warriorz’s win over Mumbai. “I open for my team in the domestic season, so it was a chance for me [to put in a good performance]. I just wanted to play according to the merit of the ball, which is attuned to my natural game … If the ball is in my arc, it should be deposited into the stands — that’s my natural thought. I just want to enjoy my batting.”

Navgire hails from Mire, a village in Maharashtra's Solapur district (she has lived in Pune for many years now). She developed a lot of strength working on her family's farm in Solapur as a child and from dabbling in many sports, including javelin throw, shot put and 100-metre sprint.

8. Grace Harris 'makes cricket look easy,' says UP Warriorz captain Alyssa Healy: “She makes cricket look pretty easy at the moment…” That was the summation of Grace Harris’ brilliance with the bat by her Australia and UP Warriorz captain Alyssa Healy after Warriorz’s six–wicket win over the Gujarat Giants in Match 8 of the tournament on March 1. Harris’ 33-ball unbeaten 60 helped seal the win on Friday evening at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. “Full credit to her that she batted outstanding again tonight,” Healy told the host broadcaster at the post-match presentation.