There have been fairly just a few positives from the primary half of WPL 2024. However maybe none has been extra eye-soothing than Smriti Mandhana’s onside play. It was nearly unfair that for the longest time in her profession, a batter of her caliber hadn’t totally embraced the leg aspect. A reservation the RCB captain appears to have left behind within the ongoing WPL season.
Whereas her first fifty hadn’t been sufficient to see by a 195-run chase final week, Mandhana as soon as once more took centre stage on Monday, main RCB to a vital 28-run win in opposition to UP Warriorz halfway by the league stage. One which sees them make the highest three forward of the Delhi leg.
It was the elegant southpaw who had set the tone. Dropping their final two video games after successful as many to open their marketing campaign had left RCB susceptible, Mandhana admitted later. The message after dropping the toss was clear, “to indicate the intent straightaway.” And the left-hander walked the discuss, fashioning a few maximums early within the powerplay. The second highlighted the benefit with which she has taken down the bowlers on the leg aspect this season: clearing her entrance leg, bending on her again leg and hoisting it over vast lengthy on.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore bounce again in model 😎#RCB clinch a vital 23-run win of their last sport on the Chinnaswamy 🏟️🥳
Reside 💻📱https://t.co/iplAqFh4Yz#TATAWPL | #UPWvRCB | @RCBTweets pic.twitter.com/Eq4lk6kNkC
— Ladies’s Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) March 4, 2024
Other than the renewed power of her onside play, one other tweak Mandhana has made to her batting has been staying deep within the crease to the spinners extra typically. The off-spinners have been her Achilles heel for some time, and Chamari Athapaththu had nearly acquired her stumped with a faster one. So Mandhana focused the area behind sq. on both aspect of the sphere for her boundaries. In opposition to Athapaththu in the identical over, she scooped her over wonderful leg. Off Sophie Ecclestone, she used the width on provide from the left-arm spinner to softly dab down third man.
Now Watching 👉 🍿
Recap the #RCB Captain’s 80-run knock 🎥🔽#TATAWPL | #UPWvRCB
— Ladies’s Premier League (WPL) (@wplt20) March 4, 2024
Mandhana put collectively her highest WPL rating – 80 off 50 – eclipsing the 74 in opposition to Delhi final week. Accompanying her for almost all of her innings was Ellyse Perry, who scored her first fifty this season, breaking the sponsor’s automotive window with a six within the course of.
Even 199 appeared chaseable as captain Alyssa Healy held the fort for UPW regardless of wickets tumbling on the different finish. In contrast to 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 place RCB on the favorable finish within the factors desk.