Smriti Mandhana has played many unforgettable innings in her career, but few will ever match the sheer audacity, control and courage of what she produced in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) final against Delhi Capitals. On a night built for nerves and noise, Mandhana authored a title-winning masterpiece for Royal Challengers Bengaluru, smashing 87 off 41 balls to chase down 203, the highest successful run chase in a WPL final while battling a severe bout of flu.
RCB’s pursuit began under immense pressure after Delhi Capitals posted 203/4, powered by solid contributions from their top order. Finals are meant to suffocate batters; this one demanded perfection. Mandhana responded with an innings that blended elegance with authority, refusing to let the asking rate dictate panic. She anchored and accelerated with remarkable clarity, ensuring RCB never truly fell behind the equation. Her fifty, just arrived in 23 balls making it the fastest half century in the WPL final.
The defining phase of the match came through Mandhana’s commanding partnership of 165 runs for the second wicket with Georgia Voll, the highest stand in WPL history. During that stretch, she transformed a tense chase into a calculated dismantling. Her strike rate of 212.19 told only part of the story; the real brilliance lay in her control, when to attack, when to hold, and where to place the ball.
RCB head coach, Malolan Rangarajan, captured the essence of the innings perfectly after the match, offering an assessment that went beyond numbers “So classy, so elegant…it didn’t feel… when you looked at her, you could see that she was in control of what she wanted to do. She was timing the ball, she was hitting, picking the pockets in which she wanted to attack.”
What made the performance extraordinary was what no one in the stadium could see. Mandhana was playing through illness serious enough to have ruled many players out altogether. Rangarajan later revealed just how compromised she was physically, “She was seriously unwell with a high fever. But to turn up, not even show it, nobody in the team knew… for one second also didn’t show it. That’s the person Smriti is.”
That refusal to step aside was evident from the morning of the final. When Rangarajan checked in on her availability, Mandhana’s response was characteristically understated and resolute “Nahi, Malo, koi problem nahi, I’ll be there.”
Once she walked out to bat, there were no excuses, no concessions. Mandhana found gaps with surgical precision, punished spin through the line, and repeatedly pierced the off-side ring. Each boundary felt measured rather than reckless, as if she was batting several deliveries ahead of the field. Even as fatigue threatened to creep in, her shot selection remained impeccable.
RCB eventually sealed the chase with two balls to spare, clinching their second WPL title, but the image that lingered was Mandhana standing tall trying to drag her team across the line. It was an innings that defined leadership, absorbing pressure, setting the tempo, and delivering when it mattered most.
The knock also crowned a phenomenal tournament for Mandhana. She finished the season as the leading run-scorer with 377 runs, earning the Orange Cap and surpassing 1,000 career WPL runs, a landmark that underlined her consistency across seasons. Yet none of those achievements felt as significant as what she produced in the final.
This was not just a great T20 innings. It was a lesson in composure, intent and resilience — a reminder that true class is revealed when conditions are at their harshest. Fevered, fatigued and facing a towering target, Smriti Mandhana didn’t just play a final; she owned it.
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