MATCH STORIES
Follow UsWhat do you want from a batter in T20 cricket? A high score, first of all. At a higher strike rate even better. But mix in a bit of aesthetics, and suddenly batting in T20 cricket becomes an indulgence that ensnares almost all our senses at once.
Smriti Mandhana has all these factors in-built into her technique. Having molded her batting on Kumar Sangakkara, Mandhana’s batting is loaded with aestheticism. She is among the top 10 run scorers in W-T20Is. Among the 18 batters who have scored over 2000 runs in W-T20Is, her strike rate of 121.5 is also among the top 10.
All these attributes were missing in the maiden season of the Women’s Premier League last year. Mandhana had a horror run, managing only 149 runs in eight innings, averaging her jersey number at a strike rate of 111.2. Her team, which she also captained, lost each of their first five games and were effectively out of the race for the playoffs in the first half of the tournament itself.
The Mandhana we were all promised in the first season, finally showed up in the second. After her innings in Match 11, the left-hander has 219 runs, averaging 43.8 at a strike rate of 154.2, and has an orange cap on her head.
Mandhana’s biggest worry in 2023 was tackling spin. And the 27-year-old has fixed it with a striking distance.
This season, Mandhana has belted spin at 141.3. The same was displayed during her 80 off 50 balls against UP Warriorz on Monday evening (March 4). The knock has come against arguably the best spin-bowling team of the season.
UPW have bowled the most overs of spin this season and have the best economy. Against Gujarat, in their previous match, UPW bowled 19 overs of spin. It was evident they would try to bombard RCB with the same ploy.
Mandhana was the perfect kryptonite to the Warriorz’s super spin, smashing 62 off 43 balls she faced against spin. Off-spin is generally accepted as a good match-up against her. UPW had three such options in their XI - Grace Harris, Deepti Sharma and Chamari Athapaththu.
Mandhana scored only 13 off the 14 balls she faced between Deepti and Harris. Athapaththu, on the other hand, doesn’t even try to turn the ball. The RCB skipper, assessing the same, smashed her for 25 from 13 balls. Against Rajeshwari Gayakwad, a left-arm spinner turning the ball into her, she cashed in with 14 from six balls.
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It was only in the last game when Mandhana was out trying to play a lofted drive. She committed to the shot early and the ball swung away late, missing the middle of the bat and going straight up off the slice of the bat. This innings, Mandhana left no scope for unaesthetic strokes.
While going at a strike rate of 160, the RCB skipper had a false shot percentage of only 14%. She played three lofted inside out cover drives, a shot that belongs to the cricketing royalty, scoring two sixes and a four.
In the 15th over, she struck three fours against the left-arm medium-pacer Anjali Sarvani. Each shot was in a different direction - fine leg, covers and third man. That was her modus operandi throughout the innings - finding the gaps and picking which bowler to attack.
UPW have dropped quite a few catches in the season but they will rue dropping Mandhana today the most. She was 28 off 18 balls when Athapaththu lost the ball in the lights off one of the few mistimed shots of her innings
“When I came to the game today, I was really focussed,” said Mandhana about her knock that ushered RCB to a 23-run win, alongside a 58 from Ellyse Perry.
This has been that kind of a season for Mandhana. In five games, she has three scores of 40-plus, all at a strike rate in excess of 150 and the false shot percentages have been unbelievably good - 14% today, 7.4% during her 43 (27) against Gujarat and only 4.6% during her 74 (43) against Delhi.
“Literally, better than the first season,” said Mandhana in the build-up to the season when the former cricketer Reema Malhotra asked her what she expects from the season.
Both Mandhana and RCB have fulfilled the promise of a better season in the first half at least. They played their last home game and won it comprehensively, before the caravan shifts to Delhi for the second half. RCB headed into this fixture with two consecutive losses. They needed a win to break away from the middle of the table.
And guess what? Mandhana and RCB have delivered the Chinnaswamy crowd a night to remember.
RCB are still placed third on the points table but have as many points as Mumbai and Delhi. They have also played a game extra further highlighting the importance of this result.
