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The first season of the WPL will begin on March 4 and all the matches of the tournament will be played at two venues in Mumbai. The final match will be held on March 26.
Image Credit source: Twitter
After the historic first auction of players in the Women’s Premier League (WPL), all eyes are now on the start of the tournament. Fans of all teams are eager to watch their favorite players play and their curiosity is fueled by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). A day after the successful conduct of the players’ auction, the Indian board WPLhas also released the schedule for the first season, which will begin on March 4 with a clash between Gujarat Giants and Mumbai Indians.
On Monday, February 13, the BCCI held a player auction in Mumbai, in which the league’s five franchises bought a total of 87 players at a cost of Rs 59.50 crore. Indian team’s star batsman Smriti Mandhana proved to be the most expensive player in this auction, who was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore for Rs 3.40 crore.
🗓️ Mark Your Calendars
Get ready to support your favorite teams 👏 👏
The schedule for the inaugural edition of Women’s Premier League is here 🔽 #WPL pic.twitter.com/O1HHvRUh0k
— Women’s Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) February 14, 2023
3 matches in two days
The five-team tournament will begin on March 4 and the tournament will feature a total of 22 matches including the final. There will be 20 league matches and 2 playoffs in which the final will be played. The final match will be played on March 26 at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. The entire tournament will be organized in Mumbai itself. 11 matches will be held at Brabourne Stadium while 11 matches will be held at DY Patil Stadium. The first match of the season will be played between Gujarat Giants and Mumbai Indians at the DY Patil Stadium.
WPL 2023 schedule: pic.twitter.com/URZfx8u43f
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) February 14, 2023
At the same time, on March 5, there will be the first double header of the tournament. That means two matches in one day. The first match of the day will be played between Royal Challengers Bangalore and UP Delhi Capitals at Brabourne, while the evening match will be played between UP Warriors and Gujarat Giants.
8-8 matches for each team
Like the IPL, this tournament will also be played in a double round-robin format. That means each team will play two matches against four other teams. That means in this way each team will play at least 8-8 matches. The last match of the league phase will be played between UP and Delhi on March 21. The first-placed team in the points table will go directly to the finals, while the eliminator matches between the second- and third-placed teams will be played on March 24.
As for the timing of the matches, most of the matches are in the evening, which will start from 7.30 pm. On the other hand, the first match on the day of the double header will start at 3.30 pm. There are a total of 4 double headers in the tournament.
