RCB Bold Diaries: Celebrating Smriti Mandhana’s birthday with stories of hope and love

Like they say that every inch of this world has a story to tell, similarly, when you listen deeply, every yard of hard soil on the cricket pitch has been infused with countless tales and wishes, stories of hope and inspiration galore. So do stories of admiration and respect. In one such story, narrated with immense love, adulation and respect for the skipper of RCB Women, Smriti Mandhana, RCB Bold Diaries came forth with a visceral video that would leave every fan of the Indian vice-captain in utter awe.

On Smriti’s 27th birthday, one of her teammates in the Royal Challengers Bangalore, Asha Sobhana, had a small story to narrate about Smriti’s kindness and love for her fans. After a RCB game, there was a small girl who waited for hours in a restaurant adjacent to the ground to meet her idol, Smriti Mandhana. To see if that wish can be fulfilled or not, Asha gave her captain a call and Smriti was very quick to react, reaching out to the girl after all the exhaustion and treated her with so much love and affection.

Punam Khemnar, another destructive all-rounder for RCB narrated another very sweet story, stating, “When we used to play for Maharashtra Cricket Association, Smriti would play for India. I would go up to her and call her Smriti Didi. She would come to me and say that ‘I am younger to you. You can’t call me Didi’ in a very loving way.”

For people who are just aware of Indrani Roy as a budding wicket-keeper in the women’s circuit, she has another very special talent and that is her rapping. She would occasionally rap in front of the players, trying to motivate them and keep the dressing room ambience light. In a story where Smriti would exchange a very heart-warming moment with her, Indrani said, “One fine day she came up to me and said ‘hey, nice rap’. I was like, did you hear? She said, ‘of course I heard and it is amazing.’”

It wasn’t just her teammates who spoke highly of her but even budding cricketers in Bengaluru had nice things to say about Mandhana.  A young girl said, “She is an opening batter. I am an opening batter too. She has developed as a cricketer so much. Initially women’s cricket used to have a strike rate of 100. Now looking at her, she always gives us an explosive start.”

Another youngster said, “I love how she handles the pressure, always with a smile on her face. One reason to support RCB was Virat Kohli and now we have Smriti Mandhana too.”

There were others who were impressed with Smriti’s dynamic personality while others heaped accolades on Mandhana’s impeccable dressing sense. With all said and done, the video came to a close with a sublime birthday wish rap from Indrani - do not forget to catch it all on the latest video of RCB Bold Diaries!

𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳. 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘻𝘦𝘳. 𝘙𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘭. 👸@mandhana_smriti's RCB teammates speak about their captain and few favourite memories with her, while Bengaluru's budding cricketers talk about how she's influenced their cricketing journeys!

Here’s our Smriti… pic.twitter.com/7IjHpXYwdr

— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) July 18, 2023