Vadodara, Jan 24 (IANS) Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain Smriti Mandhana said her side would take positives from their seven‑wicket loss to Delhi Capitals, ending their unbeaten run in the 2026 Women’s Premier League (WPL), stressing that the setback came at the right time before the playoffs.

“For sure, I mean, in tournaments like these, you take these losses before the playoffs. So, again, I think we did a lot of things right in the practice. We’ll take all those positives and go ahead, and I mean, we’ve just played really good cricket, one off day today for all of us. So we’ll take all the learnings from today and come back stronger,” said Smriti Mandhana in the post-match presentation ceremony.

Reflecting on conditions in Vadodara, Mandhana said, “I feel the wicket is playing differently every day here in Baroda. In the last match we played, and in the other matches, it was quite low. Today, it was a little more spongy, I would say.

“So, I think we could not adapt to it. We all thought maybe 160, 170, maybe 140 plus was a good total. But again, I mean, credit to our bowlers. They fought really well. There are some things with our fielding and our batting, which we’ll work on and make those right decisions,” said Mandhana.

She admitted her team’s fielding fell short of their lofty expectations. “I mean, as I said earlier, I think as a captain, I’ll take it today rather than playoffs one odd day. We really pride ourselves on fielding well. So today’s definitely something which we won’t be really happy with as a team.

“I think this fielding performance should hit us in general for all the girls. But knowing our girls, they work really, really hard and I’m sure that they’re going to come back harder, practice harder and come back next match and go out and field the best again,” Mandhana added.

She praised her bowlers for their intent despite defending a low total. “The only thing I said batting out there today, whatever balls I faced, I was telling them that, of course, this is one of the toughest wickets we have got in the tournament, so really thought that three, four wickets in the powerplay or something like that would really give us a chance, so keep it really positive, simple.

“Again, I mean, 20-30 more runs would have been ideal, but again, I think it’s a game of cricket. I’m really happy. I’m really impressed with all the bowlers. They were really wanted to have that one fielder in, not being very safe. They wanted to win the match, which again, all the positives that as a captain, I’ll take back,” she added.

Mandhana signed off by praising her new‑ball pair of Lauren Bell and Sayali Satghare. “Sayali’s been brilliant for us in the Power-play, as well as Belly, I mean, both of them are making for a good combination in terms of one takes it out, one takes it in. Again, we started really, really well, but there’s some few things we can definitely get better at in terms of taking those chances. But again, as I said, with this unit of girls, I’m extremely happy with the way they’re working, and I’m sure they’ll just work their way up.”

–IANS

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