New Delhi, March 8 (HS): Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) had a great start to their campaign in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2025. In the first match, they chased a record target of 202 runs against Gujarat Giants and then defeated Delhi Capitals (DC) by eight wickets. But after losing all the four matches played on home ground, the team is now on the verge of being eliminated from the playoffs.

RCB currently has only four points from six matches and the team can reach a maximum of eight points by winning their remaining two matches against UP Warriors and Mumbai Indians. On the other hand, Giants and Mumbai are already on eight points, while Delhi Capitals (with 10 points) have reached the playoffs. Although the road is definitely difficult for RCB, their fate is still in their hands. At the same time, the UP Warriors team is out of the playoff race.

Victory is necessary for RCB

RCB’s playoff hopes are based on Saturday’s match against UP Warriors. In case of defeat, their race will end there. But if they win, RCB will have to keep an eye on the result of the match between Mumbai Indians and Giants, so that they can know which team they have to overtake in net run rate to go to the playoffs.

At present, the net run rate of Giants is better than Mumbai, but the relief for RCB is that their last match will be against Mumbai. RCB is currently about 60 runs behind Mumbai’s net run rate, but if they beat UP Warriors by 10 runs and Giants also beat Mumbai by 10 runs, then RCB will need only a 20-run win against Mumbai to go to the playoffs. On the other hand, to overtake Giants, RCB will have to win by a total margin of about 62 runs against UP and Mumbai, provided Giants lose to Mumbai by only 10 runs.

Delhi Capitals have finished the league stage on top, but their direct entry into the final is not certain. This is because both Mumbai and Giants can overtake them in the points table.

Mumbai can reach the first position by winning both the matches, while if Giants defeat Mumbai by a big margin, they can also reach the top. Giants will have to win against Mumbai by 17 runs or 12 balls remaining (if the first innings score is 180) so that they can go ahead of Delhi’s NRR. At the same time, Mumbai is currently about 30 runs behind Delhi, that is, if they lose one match by 10 runs, they will have to win the second match by about 40 runs.

Now it will be interesting to see whether RCB is able to make it to the playoffs by taking advantage of the last chance or not.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar