da lvbet： The defending champions started WPL 2025 with two wins, but five straight losses cost them a knockout spot
da cassino online： Vishal Dikshit12-Mar-2025Smriti Mandhana had a poor WPL 2025, both as captain of a team that didn’t make the knockouts and as a batter with mediocre returns. WPL winners in 2024, RCB finished second-last this time, just above UP Warriorz, and that too on net run-rate.Mandhana’s demeanour at her final press conference of this season after an 11-run win against against Mumbai Indians, however, gave us a wise and pragmatic captain who had ended on a high, and not a sullen leader after a disappointing season. She became slightly philosophical, too, almost summoning the cricketing gods as she rued her team’s failure to clinched some of the crucial moments.”Yeah, we were just having a joke post the match that we started the season on a high, ended it on a 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.”Related
Mandhana, Wareham, Rana breach Brabourne fortress to deny MI top spot
The defending champions started with two wins before stuttering to five straight losses that cost them a knockout spot.Injuries to Asha Sobhana, Shreyanka Patil and Sophie Molineux, and Sophie Devine opting for a break didn’t help, and the big setback was that RCB didn’t win even one out of their four home games, in stark contrast to 2024 when they won three out of five in Bengaluru.What hurt them further was that at home, where local fans again filled the stands, RCB lost two matches by agonisingly close margins: by four wickets with one ball to spare to MI and then the Super Over loss to Warriorz.”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, that is a team for me.”5:25
Mel Jones: ‘Phenomenal’ Perry played a different sort of innings
What also didn’t work for RCB at home was the toss. Teams opted to chase as the league moved from Vadodara to Bengaluru to Lucknow to finally Mumbai, and with the lack of dew and big totals in the first innings, chasing teams won most 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, which meant the team largely relied on No. 3 Ellyse Perry for the bulk of the runs. But their totals were never enough.Perry’s prolific run placed her second among the run-scorers this season and on top in the WPL overall.”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 goes well for Indian cricket because people like that make you work really hard.”Richa Ghosh struck at 175.57 in WPL 2025•BCCI
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 230 runs off 131 balls. She ended the RCB campaign also in style, particularly when going after Shabnim Ismail. Ghosh scooped and reverse scooped 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 the smaller side [of the boundary], but for batters like Richa, they just see the ball and hit with their power.”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 switch hit. A lot of things have gone in, 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 [Ghosh] batting like that is amazing signs for Indian cricket.”
