New Delhi, Feb 3 (IANS) Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s big-hitting all-rounder Grace Harris said her contrasting personality with skipper Smriti Mandhana has been key to their successful opening partnership as the team prepares for the 2026 Women’s Premier League (WPL) final, set to happen at BCA Stadium in Vadodara on Thursday.

The Australian power-hitter was handed the role of opening the batting alongside Smriti by head coach Malolan Rangarajan in a practice session ahead of the tournament. Rangarajan’s words for Grace while being handed the opening slot was that she should go for the cheese and not the cat, which translates to take the extra risk, and not be afraid of getting out.

Grace has amassed 228 runs in eight innings at a strike-rate of 180.95 has formed a formidable opening combination with Smriti, who’s the third leading run-getter in WPL 2026 with 290 runs at a strike-rate of 141.46. “She’s been fantastic. She’s such a quiet-natured kind of person, probably the opposite of myself come game day. Sometimes opposites work and sometimes they go horrifically bad.

“But I’m glad to say that opposites have worked this time around, at least from my end. You’ll have to ask Smriti how she feels, but she’s easy going. She doesn’t say a lot out in the middle. She kind of just glove-punches me and then makes sure that we’re reiterating how we’re going to play and how we’re going to play certain bowlers.

“So, there’s a little bit of chat every now and again. Well, a bit of casual chat every now and again. But most of the time, it’s just good vibes and a good time,” Grace told IANS in a select virtual interaction on Tuesday.

Ahead of the title clash, where RCB are aiming to win their second title after emerging triumphant in 2024, the side had a short break in Goa before commencing their practice session for the final. It’s something Grace believes was crucial for maintaining mental freshness ahead of the tournament’s title clash.

“Obviously, finals come with higher expectations and pressure, or perceived pressure. But I guess it’s just really good. Sometimes when you, again, come to these kind of franchise competitions, you kind of live in a little bubble and it can go south.

“Well, the mental side of things can go south real quick, especially if you’re an overthinker or if you spend a lot of time just watching and thinking about cricket. So, Goa was a fantastic experience. I’ve never been there before, but I really enjoyed it. I think a lot of the girls did, too.

“If you work really hard, I think you earn those trips away if you can kind of have too much business and not enough pleasure. But getting that balance right is only the best thing for an athlete or for a performance occupation. Sometimes the mental clarity is more significant or more important than how many hours you train or how your body is going, if that makes sense. So, it was very good fun,” she elaborated.

Grace signed off by saying the secret behind RCB’s good run in WPL 2026. “What we’ve done the best is we’ve played as a team – kind of committed to our roles and everybody stood up at different times, or different people stood up at different times.

“So it’s just been good fun and we tried to learn a fair bit from the losses or the wins, which has been exciting within our team chats. But we’re just kind of trying to adapt quickest to the conditions and then play a successful brand of T20 cricket, which has been good fun.”

–IANS

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