How can UP Warriorz still qualify for WPL 2026 playoffs after defeat to RCB?

Despite an eight-wicket bashing against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in their penultimate league game of the WPL 2026 campaign, UP Warriorz are still in contention to progress to the semi-final. Against RCB, the middle order batters lacked intent, while the bowlers were smacked all around the park. Grace Harris and Smriti Mandhana had a stellar outing with the bat, scoring 75 and 54* runs, respectively, as RCB chased 144 runs inside 14 overs.

After the game, skipper Meg Lanning reflected on the poor show, as she called out the batters. She noted that the template isn’t ideal in T20 cricket before lauding Grace, who not just stole the show with the bat, but also set the tone. She stitched a 108-run partnership with Mandhana and courtesy of that, RCB won the match rather comfortably.

“Yeah, obviously really disappointing. We got ourselves onto a reasonable platform with the bat but just couldn’t carry on. It’s probably been a bit of a theme throughout the tournament – we get some momentum and then lose wickets at crucial times, often in clumps. That’s not ideal in T20 cricket. And then with the ball, we never really got going. Grace was outstanding again; she put away anything we missed and finished it off beautifully. So credit to her and to RCB – unfortunately, we just didn’t put our best foot forward tonight,” Lanning said in the post-match presentation.

The defeat put UP in a difficult spot, but they are not yet eliminated from the competition. The side now needs to pick up a massive win over Delhi Capitals in their final league game of the season and also expect Gujarat Giants to beat Mumbai Indians by a heavy margin. Only if this happens and they move to six points with a better Net Run Rate (NRR) than Mumbai, UP can move to the Eliminator. 

The chances of the same are slim at the moment, but UP can only hope to pull off a miracle. 

WPL 2026 points table: