WPL 2025 – RCB captain Smriti Mandhana – started and ended the season on a high; lost midway somewhere’
Smriti Mandhana has had a rough WPL 2025, both as captain of a team that didn’t make the knockouts and as a batter with inconsistent returns. Title winners from 2024, RCB finished second-last this time, just above bottom-placed UP Warriorz, and that too because of a superior net run rate.
Mandhana’s demeanour and attitude at her final press conference of this season after a morale-boosting 11-run win against Mumbai Indians, however, reflected that of a wiser and pragmatic captain ending on a high, and not a sullen leader after a disappointing season. She became slightly philosophical too, almost summoning the cricketing Gods and rued that if her team had clinched some of the crucial moments, RCB might have even topped the table this season.
The defending champions started their campaign with two wins before stuttering to five straight losses that cost them a knockout spot.
“Yeah, we were just having a joke post the match that we started the season on a high, ended it on high and midway, we just lost somewhere,” Mandhana said after the game on Tuesday. “Pretty much that sums up our season. But yeah, having lost a lot of players from last season post the auction, definitely we had our thinking shoes on in between the auction and the season. But the way we started, I really thought that we are in it.”
Apart from injuries to some of their match-winners from last season, such as Asha Sobhana, Shreyanka Patil and Sophie Molineux, the biggest blow for RCB was that they didn’t win even one out of their four home games this season, in stark contrast to 2024 when they won three out of five in Bengaluru.
What hurt them further was that on their home ground, where local fans again thronged the stadium, RCB lost two matches by agonizingly close margins: by four wickets with one ball to spare to MI and then a tied clash against Warriorz, which they lost in the Super Over.
“I think in Bangalore, a lot of things didn’t go our way,” Mandhana said. “But I am really proud of the way the team showed the character. Losing a lot of close matches is not easy on a team and I think we lost first two to three matches, which were pretty close. But everyone was really positive, which is something I am really pleased [about] as a captain. You win or lose. Sometimes in franchise cricket, these things go your way and you win it. But when it doesn’t go your way, and the team sticks together is a team for me.”
What also didn’t work for RCB at home was the toss factor. Teams winning the tosses were only opting to chase as the league moved from Vadodara to Bengaluru to Lucknow and finally Mumbai, and with the lack of dew and big totals in the first innings, chasing teams were winning most of those matches.
RCB, in their home leg, lost all four tosses and were inserted by oppositions. At their home stretch also came Mandhana’s own lean patch of form, which meant the team largely relied on No. 3 Ellyse Perry for the bulk of scoring, but their totals were never enough.
“Sometimes, there’s something called cricketing God, which I believe a lot in,” Mandhana said. “You do a lot of things right and in the last two or three overs, things don’t go your way. We won [the title] last year by winning those moments. And this year, in the first two matches in Bangalore, we couldn’t make those moments ours, which is, I feel, a turning point for us, especially the first two matches.
“Looking back, I wouldn’t want to throw anyone under the bus saying that would have changed it. We all, together as a team, could have contributed a lot more. Me as a batter in the mid phase, I was not able to score a lot of runs.
“I think especially the Bangalore leg, losing the toss, not many teams could actually put up more than 160, but we could do that only because the way she [Perry] batted out there. Just really good to have her around the team, around all the Indians as well, because [there’s] a lot to take from her, lot to learn from her. And I am sure a lot of people in the team watch her and try and take a lot of things from her. And I hope that it only grows well for Indian cricket because people like that make you work really hard.”
The other positive for RCB was the big hitting of Richa Ghosh, whose strike rate of 175.57 was the best in the team (minimum 30 balls faced). She smashed 13 sixes and 25 fours on her way to tallying 230 runs off 131 balls this WPL. She ended the RCB campaign also in style, particularly going after the experienced fast bowler Shabnim Ismail. Ghosh scooped and reverse scooped against Ismail and reverse swept Hayley Matthews for boundaries on her way to 36 off 22 on Tuesday.
“She is just amazing to watch,” Mandhana said of Ghosh. “I have seen her grow throughout the last three seasons of WPL and with the Indian team. The way she can change the game single-handedly is a sight to watch. When she is out there, the other dugout can’t sit peacefully, and no equation is less or more for her.
“I mean for us to chase 223-odd runs [against Warriorz] and just losing by ten runs and the way she batted… For batters like us, we see smaller side [of the boundary], but for batters like Richa, they just see the ball and hit with their power, of course.
“The variety of shots is something she has really worked on. People always just relate Richa with a lot of power but the cuts, the reverse sweeps today, which she switched hit. A lot of things have gone into a lot of work and her work ethics have been really good for the past year. [I am] really happy for her, and I hope she keeps going because she batting like that is amazing signs for Indian cricket.”
Vishal Dikshit is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
