Fans cheered for Smriti Mandhana, the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), after she played aggressively and scored fifty runs in a tough match against Delhi Capitals in WPL 2024 on Thursday, February 29. Smriti energized RCB’s game with a strong 74 runs from 43 balls, but her team lost because other batters didn’t support her.
In the game at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Delhi Capitals (DC) batted first and scored a challenging 194/5 in 20 overs. Shafali Verma (50), Alice Capsey (46), Marizanne Kapp (32), and Jess Jonassen (36*) did well in batting for them.
Smriti Mandhana took charge of RCB’s batting in the powerplay and attacked the bowlers. She cleverly aimed for the short leg-side boundary to score quickly.
Her partners, Sophie Devine (23) and Sabbhineni Meghana (36), struggled to score freely, which put pressure on Smriti. Despite this, Smriti reached her first WPL half-century with 74 runs before Marizanne Kapp dismissed her in the 12th over. RCB couldn’t recover from there and ended up with 169/9 in 20 overs.
RCB fans were happy to see Smriti Mandhana’s great performance, but the team lost to DC in WPL 2024. They praised her through reactions on X. Here are some of the reactions:
“After the loss to DC in WPL 2024, RCB captain Smriti Mandhana said, ‘It was a bad game, but we need to learn from it and come back stronger.'”
After the match, RCB captain Smriti Mandhana talked about the loss:
“We didn’t perform as well as we did in the first two matches. It was a tough game, but we need to learn from it and come back stronger. When we were in the dugout, we discussed how they were ahead by 10-15 runs. I talked with Sophie and said if we play till the 14th or 15th over, we can make it.”
She added:
“Women’s cricket is improving, so I had to work on my leg side shots. The boundaries on the leg side were short, so I focused there. Regarding bowling, I won’t be too critical. We didn’t bowl or field up to our standards. With the crowd, we don’t get much attention. We’ll discuss it and improve. I’ll take responsibility and be quicker on the field.”
RCB will play against MI on Saturday (March 2) at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
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