Mumbai: The opening match of the WPL 2023 between Gujarat Giants and Mumbai Indians has been delayed by 30 minutes on Saturday. The match will take place at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
The BCCI issued a statement that said, “The inaugural game will have a rescheduled start and will commence at 08.00 PM IST on Saturday. The toss will take place at 07.30 PM IST.” The game was earlier supposed to begin at 7:30 PM with the toss at 7:00 PM.
“The grand opening ceremony will start at 6:25 PM IST. Adding glitz and glamour to the tournament opener will be Bollywood stars – Kiara Advani and Kriti Canon. To top it all, singer-songwriter AP Dhillon will be performing some of his musical chartbusters on-stage that is bound to leave the audience enthralled”, the statement further added.
In order to bolster women’s cricket, BCCI’s effort to organize WPL is a historical move. Talking about the first match, Mumbai Indians (MI) will be led by India women’s team skipper Harmanpreet Kaur while Aussie batting legend Beth Mooney will be leading Gujarat Giants.
Teams like Delhi Capitals, UP Warriorz, Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Gujarat Giants will be locking horns in 22 matches across 2 venues in Mumbai from March 4 to 28 in the inaugural edition of the WPL. The second game will be played on March 5, Sunday between RCB and Delhi Capitals at the Brabourne Stadium.
Earlier, the WPL auction saw a huge amount of INR 59.50 crore spent by the five franchises where India’s star batter Smriti Mandhana became the most expensive player at the auction that took place in Mumbai. Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) got her for INR 3.4 crore and named her the captain.
