I saw the look in her eyes – Smriti Mandhana on Asha Sobhana’s match-winning spell against UP Warriorz

It was a grandiloquent start for the Royal Challengers Bangalore women’s team as they edged past UP Warriorz in a thrilling contest that went down the very wire in Match 2 of WPL 2024. A powerful batting showdown from Richa Ghosh (62), Sabbhineni Meghana (53) and Asha Sobhana’s match-winning fiver sealed the fate of the contest for Smriti Mandhana and company.

Talking at the post-match presentation, the RCB-W skipper said, “Pretty nice game. Even the last match was really close. The same equation came up on the board. I was praying to all the gods and I was at cover, was just praying and the bowlers did an amazing job today.”

She also shed some light on how the crunch bowling from Asha and Sophie Molinuex changed the game, adding, “Was having a lot of faith in Sophie and the way she bowled the last over was brilliant and Asha getting 5 wickets was game-changing.”

Heaping individual praises on Asha Sobhana, Smriti said, “Whenever I saw her, I saw the look in her eyes which said give me the ball. It's just her second WPL season but she is experienced domestically and good to see her perform well.”

She concluded by saying about the overall game, stating, “At the second timeout we thought we will go past 165 which I thought was a good total. Richa and Meghana the way they batted without contributions from me, Sophie and Perry was great.”