A CAPTAINCY SWAP opens the season. MI London Women host Sunrisers Leeds Women, the reigning champions, at the Kia Oval on Tuesday, July 21, at 2:45 PM local (7:15 PM IST), kicking off the double-header ahead of the men’s opener at the same ground.
Hollie Armitage, who led Sunrisers Leeds (as Northern Superchargers) to the 2025 title, has switched sides to captain MI London this year. Dani Gibson, a record £190,000 auction signing, steps into the leadership role Armitage left behind at Leeds.
Both squads have been almost entirely rebuilt through the competition’s first-ever women’s auction, so this opener is as much about first impressions as it is about form.
Match Details
| Details | Information |
|---|---|
| Match | MI London Women vs Sunrisers Leeds Women, 1st Match |
| Series | The Hundred Women’s Competition 2026. Tournament OPENER, first half of the season’s opening double-header. First-ever women’s player auction held March 2026, with the salary cap doubled to £880,000. |
| Date | Tuesday, 21 July 2026 |
| Time | 2:45 PM BST / 1:45 PM GMT / 7:15 PM IST. This game precedes the men’s fixture between the same two franchises at the same venue later that evening. |
| Venue | The Kia Oval, London. |
| Format | 100-ball innings per side, five sets of 20 balls, no bowler allowed more than two sets. |
| Captains | Hollie Armitage (MI London), Dani Gibson (Sunrisers Leeds) |
| Form | SEL: Defending champions, having won the 2025 title as Northern Superchargers, beating Southern Brave by 7 wickets in the final under Armitage’s captaincy. ML: Finished a distant sixth in the women’s table in 2025 as Oval Invincibles, prompting a full reset that brought in Armitage as captain along with Hayley Matthews, Nicola Carey, Amelia Kerr and Chinelle Henry through the auction. |
| H2H (pre-rebrand) | The two franchises have met 3 times since 2021 under their old names, with Northern Superchargers winning 2 of those meetings. Almost the entire playing group on both sides has changed since then, so this record carries limited weight heading into 2026. |
Dream11 Team for MIL-W vs LDS-W, 1st Match
Top Picks for MIL-W vs LDS–W, 1st Match
| Player | Team | Role | Key Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phoebe Litchfield | SEL | Captain / Batter | Captain pick. Led the whole competition in runs in 2025 (292). Left-hand opener, sets the tone early. At 2x. |
| Annabel Sutherland | SEL | VC / AR | Vice-Captain pick. Reported 2025 MVP for the champions. Batting plus genuine pace bowling. At 1.5x. |
| Hayley Matthews | ML | All-Rounder | West Indies captain, MI London’s marquee auction signing at £120,000. Opens and bowls off-spin. |
| Dani Gibson | SEL | Captain / AR | Sunrisers Leeds captain. Record £190,000 signing, the highest fee paid for an English player in the women’s auction. |
| Deepti Sharma | SEL | All-Rounder | India’s premier all-rounder. Off-spin plus dependable middle-order batting. Sunrisers Leeds’ X-factor overseas pick. |
Pitch Report
| Details | Information |
|---|---|
| Venue | The Kia Oval, London. Large square boundaries, generally kind to batters once the new ball is negotiated. |
| Pitch Type | Some seam and swing on offer early, easing up for stroke-play as the ball softens. Middle-overs spin from Sharma, Kerr and Kirstie Gordon is likely to be the key battleground on a used strip. |
| Scoring | The average first-innings score in Women’s Hundred matches at the Oval sits at roughly 112, noticeably lower than the men’s numbers at the same ground. This figure is worth cross-checking against ESPNcricinfo Statsguru before publishing. |
| Pace vs Spin | Seam dominates the opening sets, with spin taking over through the middle of the innings once the shine has gone. Both attacks lean on their spin-bowling all-rounders in that phase. |
| Toss Factor | Chasing sides win roughly half the matches at this venue in the women’s competition, so there is no overwhelming case either way. Expect the toss winner to size up cloud cover before deciding. |
Weather Report
| Details | Information |
|---|---|
| Temperature | Around 24°C (75°F), a mild London summer afternoon. |
| Sky | Partly cloudy with sunny spells, similar through the afternoon into the early evening. |
| Rain Chance | Low, roughly 10 percent for the day. No disruption expected to this opening fixture. |
| Humidity | Moderate, which could offer a touch of early movement for the seamers under overcast patches. |
| Overall | Good batting and bowling conditions, and a clean 100 balls a side looks likely for the tournament’s curtain-raiser. |
MIL-W vs LDS-W Toss Prediction
Both squads are largely unfamiliar combinations after the auction reshuffle, so there is no fixed toss pattern to lean on yet, and conditions on the day will likely decide the call.
**If Hollie Armitage (MI London) wins, **expect her to bowl first, lean on Kirstie Gordon’s left-arm spin and Nicola Carey’s medium pace through the middle, and back Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Hayley Matthews to chase a target down in familiar Kia Oval surroundings for the returning captain.
**If Dani Gibson (Sunrisers Leeds) wins, **the champions are more likely to bat first and set a target, using Litchfield and Winfield-Hill at the top before Sutherland and Deepti Sharma accelerate through the middle. Gibson’s own all-round game gives her the option to finish with bat or ball depending on how the innings unfolds.
Injury and Team News
MI London Women:
MI London go into 2026 with an almost entirely new look after finishing sixth in 2025 as Oval Invincibles. Hollie Armitage was appointed captain, having led Northern Superchargers to the 2025 title before switching sides.
She is backed by a strong overseas auction haul: Hayley Matthews (£120,000), Nicola Carey (£95,000, fresh off a strong WPL campaign for Mumbai Indians), Amelia Kerr (£80,000) and Chinelle Henry (£70,000). No injury concerns have been reported for the squad ahead of the opener.
Sunrisers Leeds Women:
Sunrisers Leeds enter as defending champions but with a new captain in Dani Gibson, who replaces Armitage after a record £190,000 signing made her the most expensive English player in the women’s auction.
The overseas core that won the title largely stays intact, with Phoebe Litchfield, Annabel Sutherland, Deepti Sharma and Jess Jonassen all retained, while Lauren Winfield-Hill has moved north after her release from MI London. No injury concerns have been reported for the squad ahead of the opener.
