WPL 2023: Smriti Mandhana, the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore, who lost in the fourth match in a row in the Women’s Premier League, made interesting comments on these failures.
First Published Mar 11, 2023, 9:19 AM IST
RCB entered the Women’s Premier League with huge expectations and lost their fourth consecutive matches with terrible performances and are facing the wrath of the fans. Despite having star players in the team, the team is losing the matches which angers the management as well as the fans. Recently, Mandhana and Co. lost the match against UP Warriors on Friday night. Criticisms are pouring in. Mandhana responded in this context. He said that he took full responsibility for the defeats.
Speaking to the media after the match against UP Warriors, Mandhana said, ‘This (defeat) has been happening since the last four matches. We are starting the matches well but we are not able to continue them till the end..
In order for our bowlers to maintain the score, the batsmen must also score enough runs on the score board accordingly. But that is not happening. I take full responsibility for these defeats. Especially when we are batting we are vacillating between 7-15 overs. We are not able to get runs in the middle overs. We should focus on this. Nothing is in our favor today. Even in the next matches we will correct our mistakes and perform better…’ she said.
Mandhana also said that the last week has been very difficult for their team and they need to improve in those areas where they are weak. “I am talking to everyone in the team about these losses. Last week was very rough. Many people expressed their support to me through messages and phones. This is not new to us as international cricketers. But I have support from my family. They always help me…’ she explained.
As far as the match is concerned, RCB, who batted first in the match that ended at Brabourne Stadium on Friday, was limited to 138 runs in the allotted 20 overs. All but Ellie Perry (52) and Sophie Devine (36) were utter fluff. Captain Smriti Mandhana (4), Kanika Ahuja (8), Heather Knight (2), Shreyanka Patil (15), Erin Burns (12), Richa Ghosh (1) have come and gone. Among the UP bowlers, Ecclestone took four wickets and Deepti Sharma got three wickets. After that, UP chased down the target in 13 overs. The team’s openers captain Alyssa Healy (96 not out in 47 balls, 18 fours, 1 six) and Devika Vaidya (36 not out in 31 balls, 5 fours) gave a great victory to Audi UP.
