WPL 2023: RCB players celebrate Holi as Smriti Mandhana, Richa Ghosh, Heather Knight pose with coloured faces

Smriti Mandhana. (Photo Source: Instagram/Heatherknight)

Despite having dismal outings in the tournament, Smriti Mandhana and her girls seem to look positive as they celebrated Holi on Tuesday, March 7. In the inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) are going through a difficult time after their two consecutive losses.

On March 6, the Smriti Mandhana-led team got dominated by Mumbai Indians (MI) in all departments and lost the game by a huge margin of nine wickets. Earlier, on March 5, Delhi Capitals (DC) also hammered the team by 60 runs and kept them away from opening their account in the competition. After back-to-back defeats in two games, the Challengers are currently placed in the fourth position on the points table.

Reposting a picture shared by her teammate Heather Knight on her Instagram stories, Smriti updated her fans about her team’s Holi celebration. In the picture, the captain is seen painted in colours along with her teammates Richa Ghosh and Heather Knight.

Horrendous outing on Monday night

In the second game, RCB captain Mandhana won the toss and opted to bat first. However, the Challengers batters failed to confront MI bowlers for 20 overs and got folded for 155 in 18.4 overs. With the joint bowling efforts of Hayley Matthews and Saika Ishaque, MI succeeded in annihilating the top order of RCB.

With the crucial contributions of lower-order batters, the Challengers could put up a decent total. However, it was Hayley Matthews’s night as she got hold of RCB with both ball and bat and took her team home. The Caribbean skipper racked up 77 runs off just 38 balls with 13 fours and a six, at a tremendous strike rate of 202.63. Due to this incredible display, Matthews also won the Player of the Match award.

Following her team’s embarrassing outing, Mandhana appeared for the post-match comments and said that her team will not dwell on the loss and they will pick some positives from the defeat to go ahead for the next game.

“It is a pretty short tournament and we can’t dwell on it, even in franchise cricket if you start winning then you can go on a run,” added the RCB skipper while discussing her team’s performance with broadcasters.

The team’s next match is against Gujarat Giants (GG) on Wednesday. Like RCB, GG are also yet to win their first game in the tournament.

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