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“There’s a joke running in the team after this game that we started the season on a high and ended it on a high but just lost (the plot) somewhere in between. That pretty much sums up our season,” Smriti Mandhana mentioned with a wry smile after Royal Challengers Bengaluru signed off from the third version of the Ladies’s Premier League with a consolatory win over Mumbai Indians right here on Tuesday.
The victory helped it evade a last-place end – an enormous drop from the facet’s championship glory final season. Whereas having the ability to make mild of the scenario, Smriti addressed among the pitfalls plaguing her group head-on, together with her personal disappointing displaying with the bat.
“Having lost a lot of players from last season (to injuries and withdrawal – Sophie Molineux, Sophie Devine, Kate Cross etc), post the auction, we definitely had our thinking shoes on between the auction and the season. Seeing how we started (with two wins in the first two games), I thought we were in it. But a lot of things didn’t go our way in Bengaluru.”
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“Losing a lot of close matches is not easy on a team. Our first few losses were pretty close but everyone stayed positive. Even till the last match in Lucknow, everyone went in thinking we still had a chance and wanted to go out there and win it. I am really pleased about that as a captain.”
Smriti recognized the primary two losses in Bengaluru because the turning level for the group which started the downward slide.
“There is something called cricketing God, which I believe a lot in. Sometimes you do a lot of things right, and in the last two or three overs, things don’t go your way. We won last year by nailing those moments, those tight games. This time, we couldn’t make those moments ours. If we had done those game rights, that momentum could have carried us to the top of the pile, who knows?
“I don’t want to throw anyone under the bus. As a team, we could have all contributed a lot more. As a batter in the mid-phase, I wasn’t able to score a lot of runs. Everyone has a part, win or lose.”
Regardless of ending with simply three wins this season, among the greatest performances – with the bat particularly – got here from RCB gamers.
Ellyse Perry had a mindblowing season the place she amassed 372 runs at a staggering common of 93 with 4 fifties. Richa Ghosh was cold and hot, however when she sunk into the floor, there was no stopping her – working example, her whirlwind 33-ball 69 towards the UP Warriorz. Smriti – who hailed the Indian participant pool within the group for stepping up in key moments – was notably effusive in her reward for the younger keeper batter.
Richa Ghosh of Royal Challengers Bangalore throughout match 20 of the Ladies’s Premier League 2025 (WPL) between the Mumbai Indians and the Royal Challengers Bangalore held on the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai, India on the eleventh March 2025.
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Sportzpics for WPL
Richa Ghosh of Royal Challengers Bangalore throughout match 20 of the Ladies’s Premier League 2025 (WPL) between the Mumbai Indians and the Royal Challengers Bangalore held on the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai, India on the eleventh March 2025.
| Picture Credit score:
Sportzpics for WPL
“Richa is a sight to watch. When she’s out there, neither dugout can sit peacefully. No equation is less or more for her because she can single-handedly turn the game. The rest of us see the short side and longer side (of the boundary), but batters like Richa just see the ball and hit with power.
“That said, people always associate her only with power, but her cuts and reverse sweeps today, her switch hits…so much work has gone into her. I’ve seen her grow over the last three years, and I think her work ethic over the past year in particular has been really good.”
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