A fourth straight loss could mean the end of the season, which is probably why almost the whole RCB team went to what was supposed to be an optional practice at the DY Patil Stadium before their game on Friday against UP Wariorz. The team led by Smriti Mandhana is running out of time to put together a complete performance and get their first points. On paper, they have a lot of stars, but they haven’t really worked as a team yet.
This doesn’t mean that there aren’t signs that they are almost there. Even though they tried to fix the damage late in the game, they still lost their first match. In the second, two of their uncapped finds of the season helped them go down fighting. In the third, they came dangerously close to catching up to Gujarat Giants’ 201 thanks to some late hitting and Sophie Devine’s brutal half-century hit at the top. But their captain is still the one thing that worries me. Mandhana hasn’t looked bad at all in her first three innings, but she’s thrown away three good starts of 35, 23, and 18 runs, all to off-spinners. This makes the match-up way too easy for her opponent.
On the other hand, it’s still hard to judge bowling performances objectively when batters have called the Brabourne strips “absolute roads.” Renuka Thakur, Megan Schutt, and Ellyse Perry, on the other hand, have a combined score of 2 for 281 in 28.2 overs across the three games, with only one maiden. This is something that would worry any manager. Their inability to strike early or to lower the high barrier against them needs to be fixed right away, because they are running out of time.
On Friday, RCB will have a slight advantage because they have played all of their games at Brabourne and know the conditions better than Warriorz, who are visiting SoBo for the first time. How they use what they know and have done, and what they learn from it, could be the key to getting their first points in the competition.
Alyssa Healy’s leadership at Warriorz camp has been very good because she has been willing to back uncapped Indian talent from within the country. Even though their captain said they would be fine, the UP batting unit hasn’t really looked settled. With the exception of Kiran Navgire, who scored 50 in their first game, players like Deepti Sharma, Shweta Sehrawat, Simran Shaik, and even Healy herself haven’t done much yet. As RCB’s situation shows, the weakness of the batting department could be the team’s downfall on their first game at Brabourne.
So far, all of the foreign players Healy has picked for her two XIs have done well, whether it was a bold move to leave out fast bowler Shabnim Ismail in the team’s first game or a literal heist by Grace Harris, who got the nod over the South African. Then, Healy’s strategy change in Game 2 made a lot of people take notice, and even though Ismail didn’t get a lot of wickets, which was why she was brought in, she was still good for the team’s budget. The player who, in her own words, thought she was going to be taken off the field paid back the management’s faith in her all-around skills by hitting the highest 50-ball score of the tournament (90*) in a one-on-one match against Delhi Capitals.
When: March 10, 7:30 p.m. IST
Brabourne Stadium is in Mumbai.
What to expect: More running around. The CCI pitches have had slightly more runs scored on them, and that may not change any time soon. But soon, dew might start to play a role. If not, match day will be clear day and night.
Team Updates
The think tank led by RCBMandhana will have to make some hard choices to come up with their strongest XI. One option is to add Dane van Niekerk’s experience to the spin department, even though she has been out of the game for almost two years. But that might mean leaving Megan Schutt on the bench after her rough start to the season, since Heather Knight and Sophie Devine don’t seem like they can be dropped right now. Unfazed Shreyanka Patil’s cameos may get her a promotion in the order this time, but RCB would love nothing more than for their captain to lead from the front and get things back on track as quickly as they got off track at the start of their campaign.
Smriti Mandhana (c), Sophie Devine, Ellyse Perry, Heather Knight, Richa Ghosh (wk), Shreyanka Patil, Kanika Ahuja, Renuka Thakur, Preeti Bose, Megan Schutt/Dane van Niekerk, Poonam Khemnar/Disha Kasat.
UP Warriorz
The Warriorz also had a voluntary practice at the DY Patil ground, which was mostly attended by players from India. McGrath’s brave hit didn’t get any help on the other end, and Healy might think about putting Grace Harris back into the XI at the expense of Shabnim Ismail because the surface ahead is good for batting. The South African speedster took only 29 runs in her first game, but she didn’t score in her first three overs against Delhi’s star-studded lineup. This meant that the Australian finisher had to sit out her first game, which was good for the South African speedster.
Alyssa Healy (captain and wicketkeeper), Shweta Sehrawat, Kiran Navgire, Tahlia McGrath, Deepti Sharma, Grace Harris, Simran Shaikh, Devika Vaidya, Sophie Ecclestone, Anjali Sarvani, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, and Simran Shaikh are all likely to be in the probable XI.
How did they say it?
Smriti has taken on a lot of responsibility. She wants this group to win so badly that she is willing to do anything to make it happen. Well, she wants to be the leader, and she’s doing a great job of it. As captain, you have to take care of everything sometimes. And we’re doing our best to get around her. We have a lot of experience being captains, and I guess it’s a fine line between giving her too much information and having too many voices and making sure she has someone to talk to or bounce ideas off of… I’m just so amazed by how calm and level-headed she is. I think it’s a really nice, you know, a really nice trait for a captain to have is someone who doesn’t make you feel scared or anything like that. So it’s been awesome. I’m getting to know her better, which I think is so cool. I just want things to go well for her. – Sophie Devine on Smriti Mandhana as captain
Having to drop players like Grace Harris is a good problem to have. But for us, it depends on the weather and who we’re playing, and we thought we needed some speed up front. So, Grace has a lot of bad luck. I thought I would miss out, but that’s a good problem to have. – Tahlia McGrath on how hard it is for UP Warriorz to choose which overseas players to play
