UP Warriorz batter Harleen Deol played a negative-impact knock.
UP Warriorz made an interesting move in their second Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2026 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) yesterday. They opened with Harleen Deol instead of Kiran Navgire, who opened in the opening game for the Gujarat Giants.
She couldn’t make an impact and instead ended up playing a negative knock, scoring 11 runs in 14 balls, including two boundaries, at a strike rate of 78.57, including as many as nine dot balls. Following the match’s conclusion, UP Warriorz head coach Abhishek Nayar explained the thought process behind such a big move.
“We felt that with the moving ball at that point, Harleen could add a bit of value in the powerplay. She’s obviously technically correct. It didn’t work out today. I felt it turned out to be the wrong decision. I take complete responsibility for it. But I think the thought process behind it was having some solidity up top and then hopefully having that power later on as the pitch gets better, because we anticipated a bit of swing initially. I thought those match-ups for Kiran Navgire in the middle would work. [But they] didn’t work today. So I look foolish.”
Harleen Deol’s partner, Meg Lanning, also played a sluggish knock, striking at a mere 66.66 after facing 21 deliveries, against RCB. The two openers collectively scored 25 runs in 35 balls, at a strike rate of 71.42, and played as many as 60% dot balls.
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Hence, UP Warriorz were off to the worst possible start, with only 36 runs in the powerplay despite losing only a solitary wicket. They never recovered and lost wickets in bunches in a bid to increase the run rate after openers struggled to maximise the powerplay.
The UP-based franchise could only get to 143/5 in 20 overs, which clearly wasn’t enough at all. RCB chased down the total in 12.1 overs with nine wickets to spare to hand UP Warriorz their second consecutive defeat in WPL 2026.
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