Smriti Mandhana Hails Richa Ghosh After ‘Tough Loss’ vs DC-W in WPL 2024 Match

Delhi: Royal Challengers Bangalore Women captain Smriti Mandhana was heartbroken following their heartbreaking loss against their Delhi Capitals counterparts on Sunday at the Arun Jaitley stadium. The home side beat the Royal Challengers by a solitary run to become the first team to qualify for the playoffs. Admitting that it is a ‘tough’ loss to take, Smriti hailed Richa Ghosh and Shreyanka Patil for their efforts.

“Tough loss to take. The way we were batting, the way Richa was going, brilliant innings and Shreyanka’s last over was brilliant to watch,” Smriti said at the post-match presentation.

Claiming that Shreyanka Patil had a niggle and was not dropped, Smriti said there is no way one can drop a player of her quality.

“She had a niggle, not that she was not dropped, a player of her quality there was no way of dropping. Really happy for her, especially the last over, showed a lot of character,” Smriti added.

Needing 17 off last over to reach a target of 182, Richa hit left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen for a 78 metre straight six and another maximum off the penultimate delivery to bring the equation down to two runs off the final delivery.

However Richa, not exactly known for being the fittest among Indian cricketers despite brute power in her strokes, wasn’t fast enough to beat Jonassen, who whipped the bails off in a flash to restrict RCB to 180/7. Delhi Capitals, with their fifth win, are now on 10 points and lead the table due to superior net run-rate (+0.918) compared to Mumbai Indians (+.343).

Needing 28 off final two overs, Shikha Pandey conceded couple of boundaries but removed Georgia Wareham, leaving left-arm spinner Jonassen to defend 17 in the final over. Earlier, Jemimah Rodrigues displayed her complete mastery over slow bowlers with a 26-ball half-century that propelled Delhi Capitals to a competitive 181 for 5 in 20 overs.