UPW vs DC, WPL 2026: UP Warriorz, Delhi Capitals face each other in hopes of breaking winless run

Life, Abhishek Nayar believes, is like a box of chocolates. You never know what to expect. For him, the game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru was a “dark chocolate, 90 per cent cocoa. So, it was quite bitter…”

But as the head coach of the UP Warriorz, he expects the next match of the Women’s Premier League, against Delhi Capitals, to be a ‘little sweeter’. His players would hope so, too.

Despite enough firepower, the Warriorz were no match to RCB as they went down by nine wickets, and slid further in the points table, with no win from two games. However, in a closed-door affair on Wednesday, the Warriorz would be hoping to register their first win of the campaign against Delhi Capitals, which also comes on the back of two consecutive defeats.

Under the leadership of its new skipper Jemimah Rodrigues, the Capitals have been far from impressive. In fact, bowling in the Powerplay is something that needs attention, and the think-tank would certainly hope for things to fall into place as the tournament progresses.

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In a high-octane tournament like this, teams can’t afford to squander their chances, and keeping that in mind, the Capitals need to back youngsters N. Shree Charani and Nandini Sharma, who claimed a hat-trick in the previous game.

For the Warriorz, however, the priority is to score maximum runs in the Powerplay. While Nayar accepted that it was a judgment of error to promote Harleen Deol as the opener against RCB, the team needs to learn from its mistakes and regroup. The team management needs to zero in on a permanent opening partner for Meg Lanning, and give that player a longer rope, rather than getting into unnecessary experiments.

Bowling, too, needs attention. The Indian pace duo of Kranti Gaud and Shikha Pandey have largely remained off-colour, and Deandra Dottin, who conceded 32 runs in an over against RCB, needs to bounce back and provide the team with crucial breakthroughs.

For both teams, the tournament has been bitter so far. But as a new box of ‘chocolate’ arrives, Warriorz and Capitals hope it tastes sweeter and is not something with ‘90 per cent cocoa’ in it. 

Published on Jan 13, 2026