WPL 2023: Smriti Mandhana's poor form continues as she falls to spin for fourth time straight

The action continued in the inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League on Friday, March 10 as Royal Challengers Bangalore were up against UP Warriorz in match 8 of the tournament at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. RCB Captain Smriti Mandhana won the toss and elected to bat first as her team was yet to taste their first win of the tournament.

However, Mandhana couldn’t vindicate her decision as she was once again dismissed cheaply by a spinner, for the fourth straight time in the ongoing tournament. On the first ball of the fourth over, in an attempt to get a move on in her innings, she tried to smack Gayakwad over long on but could only manage to get the leading edge which was safely taken by Anjali Sarvani at covers.

The southpaw departed after scoring just four runs off six balls, falling prey to reckless shots for yet another time. Mandhana has been dismissed by spinners in all four matches played so far. In the first three matches, she was dismissed by right-handed off spinners Alice Capsey, Hayley Matthews and Ashleigh Gardner respectively, whereas in the fourth game, left-arm orthodox bowler Rajeshwari Gayakwad claimed her wicket.

After four innings in WPL 2023, the RCB captain only has 80 runs to her name and has failed miserably in justifying her reputation and the price-tag. Not only her but the entire RCB batting unit is struggling to score as they only have two overall half-centuries in the four matches played so far.

RCB'S batting woes continue against UP Warriorz

Coming back to RCB’s innings, Sophie Devine and Ellyse Perry came together for the second wicket after losing their skipper early, and managed to put on a 44-run stand in 31 balls. Devine went on to score 36 off 24 while Perry departed after scoring 52 off 39 balls.

However, after their partnership ended, no other batter took the onus of taking the innings ahead as RCB once again faced another batting collapse. They were bundled out for just 138 in 19.3 overs as Sophie Ecclestone claimed four wickets for UP while Deepti Sharma scalped three wickets.

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