WPL 2024: RCB Captain Smriti Mandhana Offers Glimpse of What to Expect Before Fading Away Early

They may not have won any major title so far but every season, the crowd at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru have come out in full support of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), through the good and the bad days. It has been no different so far for the Women’s Premier League (WPL) where the atmosphere has been electrifying, to say the least, when the home team are in action.

Skipper Smriti Mandhana has walked out for the toss twice in four days and it hasn’t mattered who was with her during the flip of the coin. The roar of the crowd whenever she has had the microphone in her hand is to be witnessed live to be believed. All Mandhana can do hearing the sound is smile and perhaps, laugh. It is also maybe the best way to take in the adulation.

On Saturday, the southpaw could not provide the partisan crowd with a performance that may have made them go even more bonkers. An opportunity presented itself on Tuesday, this time in a chase. Tracking down modest totals requires top-order batters to not necessarily stay in for the long haul. It sometimes demands batters to play little cameos which would set the tone for the rest to come in and finish the job.

After the bowlers had put in an excellent shift in the first innings on Tuesday to restrict Gujarat Giants to 107 for 7, it offered Mandhana time to build an innings and stay till the end and ensure she remained unbeaten.

Instead, aided by some wayward bowling from GG, the southpaw set off at the rate of knots from the word go. Three boundaries to different parts of the ground in the first over off Mandhana’s bat sent the crowd into raptures and immediately put GG on the backfoot. If you were anywhere near the Chinnaswamy, you did not have to be inside the ground to know which of the two teams was faring better than the other.

Beth Mooney opted to bring spin of Kathryn Bryce from the other end, but her opening over saw a pull shot for four from Mandhana’s bat.

More boundaries flowed from Mandhana’s bat as Sophie Devine first and later Sabbhineni Meghana kept looking on from the other end. A distinct feature of her innings on Tuesday were the pull shots which sped away to the boundary. There was real authority in the strokes and it brought the desired result for the batter.

Mandhana’s best shot, during her stay in the middle, came after the Powerplay. RCB had posted 47 runs for the loss of Devine and Mooney decided to bring in Lea Tahuhu in the seventh over to remove the home team skipper.

After five deliveries had produced a total of two runs, Mandhana had seen enough and off the final ball that was full and outside off, she lofted the Kiwi pacer straight back over her head for a six, much to the delight of the packed house inside the venue.

The party, however, had to be halted the following over as the impressive Tanuja Kanwer tossed a delivery outside Mandhana’s off stump and the RCB skipper got forward and chipped it straight back to the bowler for 43. It was a soft, tame end to an innings that had offered promise and was already threatening to become bigger and better, as the finish line drew closer.

For 15 seasons, crowds have come to the Chinnaswamy Stadium and screamed their lungs out in support of one player wearing the number 18 jersey.

If Tuesday offered a mere glimpse of what could be in store for three more matches in the Bengaluru leg of the WPL, then it won’t be long before fans scream their lungs out and hero-worship another player wearing the number 18 shirt on the back of her jersey.