It is certain to say that the WPL 2023 season hasn’t gone as per Smriti Mandhana’s wish prior to the start of the tournament. Her side lost their first 4 matches and are all but out of the race in the top 3. Plus, Smriti Mandhana’s bat itself has been quiet.
It remained quiet on Monday as well against Delhi Capitals: in what was her 5th knock of the tournament, the elegant left-hander managed only 8 runs in a mostly cautious innings of 15 balls.
In her first 4 knocks in the WPL 2023, Mandhana was dismissed by spinners – 3 times by an off-spinner and once by a left-arm orthodox. So she was very cautious against DC’s off-spinner Alice Capsey who bowled two overs in the powerplay, after Marizanne Kapp started the game with a maiden to the RCB captain.
So when Smriti Mandhana pulled the first ball from seamer Shikha Pandey straight to Jemimah Rodrigues at deep square leg, she had been under immense pressure – not just about today’s slow-ish, conservative start, but also weighing down were her low scores in the previous 4 games.
As her India teammates Shikha Pandey and Jemimah Rodrigues celebrated her dismissal, Smriti Mandhana walked toward the RCB dugout with her head down, donning a forlorn look, leaving the crowd at the DY Patil and the millions of fans wanting for more. Disappointed.
Smriti Mandhana has scored 88 runs in 5 WPL innings, averaging only 17
As usual, the memers came out to troll Smriti Mandhana for her poor form, and being attached with RCB had already worsened the situation on social media.
Here are some of the funny memes and tweets on RCB captai Smriti Mandhana’s poor form:
Yeh kaun commentator hai. "Smriti Mandhana started very well.but couldn't continue it for long "
Gardan uthake dekha to she has dropped a 15 ball 8 masterclass— Prithvi (@Prithvi10_) March 13, 2023
Nothing is going in favor of Smriti Mandhana, she is neither scoring nor her team is winning. I think she is taking so much stress. She is not as bad player as she is looking in this WPL . pic.twitter.com/DyRdbKoBXa
— Sir BoiesX (@BoiesX45) March 13, 2023
Boys went from smriti mandhana to Amelia kerr pic.twitter.com/LqTJYqXHLM
— Ansh Shah (@asmemesss) March 5, 2023
Both Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana have kept their promises.
Harman so far leading like Rohit Sharma while Smriti so far leading like Virat Kohli . pic.twitter.com/GaTBZwFbb3
— Kaygee (@Kaygee4_5) March 9, 2023
Smriti Mandhana 's wagon wheel in this WPL. #RCBvDC pic.twitter.com/HUqroPh66J
— Aparna (@AppeFizzz) March 13, 2023
☆ Smriti Mandhana in WPL 2023 So Far
▪︎ Matches : 5
▪︎ Innings : 5
▪︎ Runs : 88
▪︎ Ball Faced : 75
▪︎ Batting Average : 17.60
▪︎ Batting Strike Rate : 117.33☆ WPL Salary : 3.40 Crores
☆ Known as : National Crush of India pic.twitter.com/qcecmSosGb— Junaid Khan (@JunaidKhanation) March 13, 2023
https://twitter.com/Goatcheeku_18/status/1635283706285010944?s=20
One line for rcb captain smriti mandhana. pic.twitter.com/Th0zfvlR9g
— हर्षित (@Italymeraghar) March 8, 2023
Virat Kohli achieved 0 trophies in the IPL, Mandhana doing the same pic.twitter.com/ypLCJncxtU
— Sunil the Cricketer (@1sInto2s) March 10, 2023
https://twitter.com/yash__csk/status/1632014488030580736?s=20
https://twitter.com/ReignOfVirat/status/1633502677547245570?s=20
What a great start to Smriti Mandhana's WPL captaincy career! Already started emulating Kohli's success with RCB 🫡🫡 https://t.co/ma1b1ZgLbu pic.twitter.com/tj65JPTEi2
— ; (@171off90) March 5, 2023
Smriti Mandhana dismissed 😥
Meanwhile RCB Fans 🥹 pic.twitter.com/6asElPf16L
— Ashutosh Srivastava 🇮🇳 (@sri_ashutosh08) March 13, 2023
Meanwhile, in their 5th WPL 2023 match, and what seems like a must-win encounter, against DC, RCB put up a total of 150/4, riding on Ellyse Perry’s 52-ball 67-run knock. Richa Ghosh produced some fireworks late in the innings with 37 runs off 16 balls, smashing 3 fours and 3 sixes.
