As the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2024 final takes centrestage tonight, the action – in a literal sense, too – will be more centrally placed. That’s down to one of the central surfaces of the Arun Jaitley Stadium, pitch No. 5 specifically, as per the Delhi and District Cricket Association’s media department, being chosen as the track on which the summit clash between Meg Lanning's Delhi Capitals and Smriti Mandhana's Royal Challengers Bangalore will take place on the evening of March 17.
The move could see the boundary dimensions become more uniform, ranging between 63- and 65-metre in the ‘V’ in front from the Red Fort end (which is on the opposite side of the media box end) for right-hand batters, with the square boundaries measuring 55 metres and the ‘V’ behind square measuring between 43 to 49 metres. By contrast, the Eliminator, which saw RCB successfully defend 135 against defending champions Mumbai Indians on Friday night, was played on Pitch No. 3, and had a square boundary as short as 46 metres.
Ahead of the final, both Meg Lanning and Smriti Mandhana weighed in on the challenges presented by the skewed boundary dimensions at the Arun Jaitley Stadium – formerly known as the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium – where the second half of WPL 2024 is underway.
“I believe the boundary is going to be even... which is great, because it is a nightmare having a 40-metre boundary on one side,” Lanning told reporters on the eve of the final. “That is one thing I haven’t necessarily enjoyed as a captain. We could look at potentially having slightly bigger boundaries. If it is even all the way around, that makes sense.
“But there’s so much more power and strength in the game now that people are clearing the ropes pretty easily. It is entertaining and is the same for both sides, so you can’t complain too much. But I have lost a lot of sleep over games where there’s only a 40-metre boundary on one side, especially when there’s left-handers like Smriti, that makes it even worse.”
The first 11 matches of the ongoing second iteration of WPL was played at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, where, too, the shortest boundary hovered around the 47-metre mark. As such, boundaries measuring 50 metres or under have been a subject of discussion across the two seasons of the WPL, with the first edition having been held at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai and the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
“There’s a lot of planning that goes on when it’s (the boundary is) 40 metres on one side,” said Mandhana on Saturday. “I feel it is a lot of headache, than having a similar size of boundary because that evens both sides. Like Meg (Lanning) said, when a left-right (batting) combination is in the middle… especially against Gujarat (Giants) when lefty-righty both were playing, it was a nightmare to understand which end to bowl your spinners or pacers from. It is a difficult thing.
On the day of the final, March 17, “we are on a similar size of boundary. That’s better but, like Meg said, it's the same for both teams. (It’s) just about how you apply.”
Aside from the boundary sizes, another factor batters and bowlers on both teams will be wary of in Sunday’s final is the bounce. Since the WPL bandwagon moved to Delhi on March 5, the average difference between the bounce for seamers on surfaces between the two venues, for instance, has been 12 metres, as per the Eliminator’s pitch report broadcast by WPL media-rights holders, Viacom 1. Conventionally, lower bounce brings in more bowled-outs and lbw-outs into play and challenges the batters more. How the top order of each team sets the tone, therefore, it could have a significant bearing on determining the winner of WPL 2024. Keep track, no pun intended.
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