WPL 2024: Smriti Mandhana’s onside game shines in fabulous knock as RCB go third with win over UPW
There have been quite a few positives from the first half of WPL 2024. But perhaps none has been more eye-soothing than Smriti Mandhana’s onside play. It was almost unfair that for the longest time in her career, a batter of her caliber hadn’t fully embraced the leg side. A reservation the RCB captain seems to have left behind in the ongoing WPL season.
While her first fifty hadn’t been enough to see through a 195-run chase last week, Mandhana once again took centre stage on Monday, leading RCB to a crucial 28-run win against UP Warriorz midway through the league stage. One that sees them make the top three ahead of the Delhi leg.
It was the elegant southpaw who had set the tone. Losing their last two games after winning as many to open their campaign had left RCB vulnerable, Mandhana admitted later. The message after losing the toss was clear, “to show the intent straightaway.” And the left-hander walked the talk, fashioning a couple of maximums early in the powerplay. The second highlighted the ease with which she has taken down the bowlers on the leg side this season: clearing her front leg, bending on her back leg and hoisting it over wide long on.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore bounce back in style 😎#RCB clinch a crucial 23-run win in their final game at the Chinnaswamy 🏟️🥳
Live 💻📱https://t.co/iplAqFh4Yz#TATAWPL | #UPWvRCB | @RCBTweets pic.twitter.com/Eq4lk6kNkC
— Women’s Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) March 4, 2024
Apart from the renewed strength of her onside play, another tweak Mandhana has made to her batting has been staying deep in the crease to the spinners more often. The off-spinners have been her Achilles heel for a while, and Chamari Athapaththu had almost got her stumped with a quicker one. So Mandhana targeted the region behind square on either side of the field for her boundaries. Against Athapaththu in the same over, she scooped her over fine leg. Off Sophie Ecclestone, she used the width on offer from the left-arm spinner to gently dab down third man.
Now Watching 👉 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙢𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙞 𝙎𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙞𝙣 𝘽𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙖𝙡𝙪𝙧𝙪 🍿
Recap the #RCB Captain’s 80-run knock 🎥🔽#TATAWPL | #UPWvRCB
— Women’s Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) March 4, 2024
Mandhana put together her highest WPL score – 80 off 50 – eclipsing the 74 against Delhi last week. Accompanying her for the majority of her innings was Ellyse Perry, who scored her first fifty this season, breaking the sponsor’s car window with a six in the process.
Even 199 looked chaseable as captain Alyssa Healy held the fort for UPW despite wickets tumbling at the other end. Unlike her counterpart, it was advancing too far down her crease that was the undoing of Healy as Richa Ghosh flashed the bails in time to put RCB at the favorable end in the points table.
