WPL 2024 Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Gujarat Giants: Date, venue, time, players to watch

S. Meghana struck RCB’s first half-century of WPL 2024. The 27-year-old’s 44-ball 53 helped RCB defeat the UP Warriorz by 2 runs on February 24. (Image source: X/@wplt20)

The fifth match of WPL 2024 will see Smriti Mandhana’s Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) square off against Beth Mooney’s Gujarat Giants (GG) at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Tuesday, February 27. The toss will take place at 7 pm India time and the first ball is scheduled for 7:30 pm.

WPL 2024 Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Gujarat Giants: Recent form

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) won their first WPL 2024 match against the UP Warriorz on February 24, to put 2 points on the table. Gujarat Giants (GG) lost to the Mumbai Indians in GG's inaugural match this season on February 25, and are yet to open their points tally. This will be the second match for both teams in WPL 2024.

RCB vs UP Warriorz

The two sides had finished with four points apiece at the inaugural 2023 edition to occupy the last two places on the WPL points table, but their 2024 campaign began in contrasting fashion. Shrugging off memories of a forgettable first season, where they placed fourth in the five-team competition, only above the Giants by dint of a super net run-rate, the Royal Challengers eked out a two-run victory in their opening game of this iteration against Alyssa Healy’s UP Warriorz.

GG vs MI

Unlike them, the Giants kicked off their season with a loss, going down to Harmanpreet Kaur’s Mumbai Indians in their first game of WPL 2024 on Sunday. The five-wicket defeat, handed to them by Mumbai with a sizeable 11 balls to spare, 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.

WPL 2024 Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Gujarat Giants: Players to watch

RCB snapped up India international S Meghana, who was released by Giants after the inaugural season, for INR 30 lakh, her base price, in the December 2023 mini auction. The aggressive right-hand top-order batter whose style of play is fashioned mostly after the classical mould, struck RCB’s first half-century of the season. The 27-year-old’s 44-ball 53 helped lift the side from 36 for 2 to 125 for 4 en route to their total of 157 for 6 in their win against the Warriorz.

Uncapped Indian allrounder Tanuja Kanwar, who bowls left-arm spin and bats left-handed in the lower-middle or lower order, turned in a noteworthy performance for the Giants against heavyweights Mumbai. With the bat, the Haryana player top-scored with a vital 21-ball 28 at No. 9 and was the aggressor in a 36-ball 48 stand with Scotland’s Kathryn Bryce. Later, during Giants’ botched defence of 126, the 26-year-old Kanwar picked up the wickets of opener Hayley Matthews, the Player of the Tournament in 2023, and Pooja Vastrakar, helping take the game deep.

Tanuja Kanwar (centre) bowls left-arm spin and bats left-handed in the lower-middle or lower order. (Image source: X/@wplt20)

WPL 2024 Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Gujarat Giants: Squads

RCB: Smriti Mandhana (c), Asha Shobana, Disha Kasat, Ellyse Perry, Nadine de Klerk, Indrani Roy, Shradda Pokharkar, Renuka Singh, Richa Ghosh, Shreyanka Patil, Sophie Devine, Georgia Wareham, Kate Cross, Ekta Bisht, Shubha Satheesh, S Meghana, Simran Bahadur, Sophie Molineux

GG: Beth Mooney (c), Ashleigh Gardner, D. Hemalatha, Harleen Deol, Laura Wolvaardt, MD Shabnam, Sneh Rana, Tanuja Kanwar, Phoebe Litchfield, Meghna Singh, Trisha Poojitha, Sayali Satghare, Priya Mishra, Kathryn Bryce, Mannat Kashyap, Veda Krishnamurthy, Tarannum Pathan, Lea Tahuhu

WPL 2024 Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Gujarat Giants: Coaches

RCB: Luke Williams (Australia)

GG: Michael Klinger (Australia)