Royal Challengers Bangalore’s campaign in the inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League came to a disappointing end on Tuesday (March 21). In their last league match of the women’s premier T20 event, the Smriti Mandhana-led side suffered a four-wicket defeat against Harmanpreet Kaur’s Mumbai Indians. The RCB could only manage to post 125 runs on the board for the loss of nine wickets, which MI chased down in 16.3 overs. With the win over star-studded RCB, MI moved to the top of the points table for a brief period before the Delhi Capitals retook the lead and confirmed their place in the final, which will take place in Mumbai on Sunday (March 26).
The debut season of the Women’s Premier League was a forgetful one for RCB, as despite having a star-studded squad, the side could only manage to win two of the eight matches it played in the league stage. They lost their first five matches, which had almost put them on the brink of an exit, and they got knocked out on Monday, when UP Warriorz defeated Gujarat Giants. RCB fans were expecting the side to finish the tournament with a win on Tuesday after finding the winning formula in the last two matches, but that didn’t happen.
However, during the final match, there was a surprise in store for them, as their captain and star batter, Mandhana, rolled her arms for the first time in the tournament. The left-handed batter very rarely bowls but took the opportunity during the final overs of the match against MI to showcase her bowling skills as well.
She bowled the 17th over of the MI innings and conceded nine runs in three balls. The video of her bowling is going viral on social media platforms, and the thing about Smriti’s bowling that caught everyone’s attention was her bowling action, which according to many fans on social media platforms was like Virat Kohli.
In fact, Mandhana’s Indian teammate and Gujarat Titans all-rounder Harleen Deol posted a tweet tagging Smriti and highlighting the similarity between her bowling action and Virat’s.
Like Madhana, Virat also dons the No. 18 jersey and plays for RCB in the premier Indian T20 league. The first edition of the WPL was a forgetful one for Mandhana, as she failed to score a single fifty even in the eight matches played throughout the league campaign.
