Absolutely brilliant innings from Richa Ghosh – Smriti Mandhana

Despite an extraordinary turnaround of affairs towards the end, where Richa Ghosh fought valiantly for her 50-ball 90, RCB suffered their second defeat on the bounce in WPL 2026.

Mumbai Indians managed to ride high on Nat Sciver-Brunt’s ton, securing their third win of the tournament.

Talking at the post-match conference, RCB captain Smriti Mandhana lauded Richa Ghosh for the very special innings that she played. Apart from that, she also shared mutual admiration for Nat Sciver-Brunt who laid the brickwork for Mumbai’s rampage.

Shedding light on Richa Ghosh’s innings, Smriti said, “Absolutely brilliant innings from Richa Ghosh. I mean, it was just a treat to watch. Nadine as well, a good contribution. But yeah, I think, of course, these sort of innings, when you lose, wouldn’t go noticed. But I think it’s one of the best innings I’ve seen.”

Delineating how Nat Sciver-Brunt turned the game away from the Royal Challengers, Smriti added, “Nat is definitely a world-class player. She can hit one ball at three different places, which again makes life very difficult. Credit to her. The shots she played were amazing. I mean, there were not many answers which we could find out there in the middle. She almost scored the bulk of the runs. Plus, the way she accelerated after 25-30 is something which every youngster should watch and learn.”

Underlining where RCB can work ahead of their last group stage fixture, Smriti said, “Bowling has been brilliant throughout the first five games for sure. But today was one of those days where a few of our bowlers didn’t get the lines right. In T20 cricket, when someone is set, you try a few things and sometimes it doesn’t work out. Lauren Bell was brilliant with the new ball and even when she came back on. But others couldn’t step up today. Nadine also bowled those two difficult overs from the shorter end, so credit to her as well.”

She concluded by saying, “We’ll think about our strategies and come back. Every time we do speak about not being complacent about qualifying. We have to win one to go straight to the finals. Having said that, there are a few things we definitely need to work on. WPL, because it’s five teams, always becomes complicated towards the end of the season. But for us, keeping things simple worked in the first five games, and we have to continue doing that. In T20 cricket, you’re going to have extremely good days and bad days. We have to take both in our stride and see what we can do better.”