The RCB pair were central to India’s come-from-behind win in the first ODI against South Africa at the Chinnaswamy Stadium
Srinidhi Ramanujam17-Jun-2024Smriti Mandhana, Asha Sobhana and Bengaluru. It is beginning to feel like a love affair.Not long ago, these two players were playing in front of a packed Chinnaswamy Stadium crowd, in red and black jerseys, scripting history for Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Just like it did with Virat Kohli, the city has quickly adopted Mandhana as its star in women’s cricket after she was signed up at the inaugural WPL auction last year.Related
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This love and support is evident in the city and on social-media platforms. During the WPL, only one kind of replica RCB jersey is sold outside the stadium: ‘SMRITI 18’. When India’s multi-format series against South Africa began in Bengaluru, it wasn’t a surprise that ‘SMRITI 18’ was all over Cubbon Road and Queen’s Road once again, albeit in blue.As for Asha, RCB helped her go from uncapped legspinner to India international after years of toil in domestic cricket.On Sunday, Bengaluru witnessed these two star as India dominated South Africa in the first ODI. Mandhana made her first ODI century at home, 11 years after making her debut, and Asha picked up a four-wicket haul in her maiden ODI appearance.”After WPL, it feels like I have moved to Bangalore from Maharashtra,” Mandhana, who hails from Sangli, said after the game. “[I] really like the crowd support here.”
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The last time the city hosted a women’s ODI was in 2015. Mandhana had played only seven ODIs then and was wearing rim-free glasses, trying to make the opening slot her own under Mithali Raj. Now, coming into the first ODI, Mandhana had featured in 82 ODIs, smashed five hundreds in 50-overs cricket and was India’s vice-captain. She had also led RCB to their first title in WPL 2024.But after several months of T20 cricket, it was not easy for an attacking player like Mandhana to curb her instincts heading into an ODI series. “No funky shots”, she told herself. This became her primary focus in India’s batter-specific camp in Mumbai ahead of the home series. She worked on hitting balls along the ground for a week and a half to train herself to not throw away her wicket.Smriti Mandhana ensured the run-scoring never ceased even when India lost wickets in a cluster•BCCIThe results were there to be seen.With India reduced to 99 for 5 after opting to bat, Mandhana anchored them to a total of 265 for 8 with a well-made 117. She fought cramps on a hot and humid afternoon and curbed the temptation to take the aggressive route.”It was not a bad wicket to bat on,” Mandhana said, but variable bounce meant some balls kept low and some took off from the surface.The pull shot was a feature of Mandhana’s innings in which 66 of her runs came on the leg side. South Africa stuck to the stump-to-stump line, denying India easy runs, but Mandhana led the rescue act alongside Deepti Sharma, with whom she put on 81 for the sixth wicket. Pooja Vastrakar then joined Mandhana in putting on 58 off just 54 balls.”Well, I haven’t really thought about it [an ODI century at home] a lot,” Mandhana said. “I was really mad with myself in the last four-five years, to be precise. Whenever I played at home, be it Tests or one-dayers, I ended up scoring 70-80, throwing away my wicket. So, more than scoring it in India or abroad, I was really happy that I could get the team through today. The whole team played good cricket. Pleased to know that [a century at home] has happened and hope that it keeps coming.”Deepti and I kept telling each other to take it till the 35th over in singles and twos. [Scoring] five or six runs per over was the focus because they had spread the field. Playing ODI cricket after a long time, in the nets, it was hard to keep my shots under control. After playing T20 cricket like we have for the last five-six months, it’s hard to control your shots. [In] the last eight days, the focus has been to keep the ball on the ground. We had a really good batting camp in Mumbai.”
Namma ooru #Smriti ooru. #INDvSA #INDWvSAW pic.twitter.com/qdkEIpU6W3
— Srinidhi (@Srinidhi_PR) June 15, 2024