Before the final of the second edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL), Smriti Mandhana was asked how she would outsmart Meg Lanning. The veteran Australian was seated next to her, finding the question – per her awkward humble self – utterly absurd.
A little over twenty four hours later, Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Delhi Capitals by eight wickets to lift its maiden WPL crown. In a tussle with countless subplots, perhaps the most crucial one was how Smriti beat Lanning at her own game.
The Master
The decorated Australian is the master of motivation. Teammates – national and franchise ones alike – have, over the years, waxed lyrical about the power of her belief and with good reason. That ability to help your teammates trust that they can move a mountain is invaluable in a game where the tide can change in almost every over.
In the final too, despite managing only 113 on the board – a total which from the start looked at least 20 runs too short against this RCB side – Lanning was out there doing what we’ve seen her do for years; that which has brought her five World titles as captain.
She began with her pacers – Marizanne Kapp and Shikha Pandey – who on any other day would have shattered the woodwork in no time. The breakthrough did come but in the ninth over when Shikha dismissed Sophie Devine for a decently tempoed 32. The Capitals would only manage one more wicket, that of Mandhana in the 15th over. Lanning, though, was relentless. She made her bowlers go around the wicket to target the stumps, kept changing fielding positions to get her strongest fielders in the most vulnerable positions and kept the circles tight.
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“We talked about where we were in the game, how we were going to get the players back up and fight,” DC head coach Jonathan Batty revealed after the loss.
“They fought magnificently and I am so proud of how they fought that second half. I thought we bowled and fielded magnificently and a lot of that is down to Meg’s leadership. Outstanding captaincy, to take the game to losing with just three balls to go was actually amazing,” he admitted.
Lanning’s approach to the game was a tad unconventional. During the Capitals batting innings, nine wickets fell to spin – the most by any team’s spinners in a WPL game. However Lanning favoured pace. She stuck to Kapp, Shikha and Arundhati who bowled 5.3 overs of dots alongside the one wicket claimed between them. While DC’s dreams of a competitive total had been guillotined by RCB’s spin attack, Capitals held back from using their tweakers extensively until later in the game.
“I guess she felt that the seamers were keeping the batters under control. Trying to take the game as deep as possible with only a small total on the board. If anything it worked. I thought it was fantastic captaincy; a lot of people would not have done that, would not have been brave enough to do that. So full credit to Meg for doing that and nearly getting us home in the end,” Batty said, backing his captain.
There’s a popular meme of a dog sitting inside a room that’s burning with a cup of tea saying, “it’s fine.” Lanning’s condition was quite similar for the first half of the game. After being trapped leg before by Shreyanka Patil, all the 31–year-old could do was watch for the next 8.5 overs, with one cameraman stationed by her side capturing every twitch on her face. Lanning wasn’t running the boundaries or bowling but was the busiest soul in a DC shirt for the entirety of the side’s bowling effort, only to fall short with three balls to spare.
After the customary handshakes, she quietly walked back to the dugout. While all eyes were on the girls in red, black and gold, Meg Lanning had quickly pulled a blue towel to her face. | Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR / The Hindu
After the customary handshakes, she quietly walked back to the dugout. While all eyes were on the girls in red, black and gold – led by Shreyanka who was unendingly hopping around celebrating – Lanning had quickly pulled a blue towel to her face. Moments later, she welled up, with DC assistant coach Lisa Keightly going across to comfort her. She laughed a bit at what was said, but a dam had broken, and the tears came rushing down her cheeks. That towel remained pasted to her face for the next 10-odd minutes as Annabel Sutherland, her former Australia and current Melbourne Stars teammate also got to her side.
“Cricket is a funny game,” a cried out Lanning would say with a little quiver in her voice. It is indeed. This personality had made Indians cry for countless years in Australian colours. However, she is yet to crack the franchise success code, fighting to the end but in vain.
The apprentice
Smriti, on more than one occasion, has been happy to admit how much she idolises Lanning - not just the leader but also the technically astute batter. In this battle of the minds, Smriti was the David to Lanning’s Goliath. She is still building her experience and decision-making fabric unlike Lanning who has woven silks of success year on year with her national side.
Smriti often comes off as reactionary on the field, perhaps because she is not a big emotions person. Celebrations are muted, disappointments aren’t dwelled on, her introverted personality was there for all to see. This WPL campaign, however, might be seen years later as a turning point in Smriti’s leadership trajectory. More so, since that win against Mumbai Indians which helped RCB make the playoffs, one sees a more emotionally tuned Smriti, constantly talking to her bowlers, constantly calling Ellyse Perry and Sophie Devine for a mini counsel on the fields to set, keeping her troops pumped even when things go a bit awry.
“One thing I’ve learnt is to believe in myself. I thought that’s something that I lacked,” Smriti admitted, with the shiny WPL trophy adorned with RCB-colour-themed ribbons kept by her side.
“Last year, if something went wrong, I would doubt myself. That was a real conversation internally that I need to keep trusting myself. Even today, six overs 60. We planned a few things which didn’t go our way. A few field sets didn’t go our way. But the only thing which stayed constant was the belief I had. I did not panic. I was really calm. That was great,” she said.
That doesn’t mean Smriti doesn’t wear her emotions on her sleeve. Against MI (both games) this season, she was grimacing, cheering, clapping, and laughing.
Much of this confidence came from spending time in the domestic circuit at the cost of a season in the Women’s Big Bash League. Playing in India gave her a lot of time around the Indian talent she had to plan for in opponent teams.
“I could have a great conversation with the bowlers because the Indian batters were coming. So I spoke to them about bowling certain balls and seeing what they do. Eventually those wickets came. So it was about being very clear when that panic button was pressed,” she explained.
Her uneasiness with the trophy and it being brought down to her smarts were almost Lanning-like. “I have to leave my shyness now ... .yeh kyun laye (why did you bring this)?” Smriti laughed and remarked when the league officials plopped the massive cup by her side.
With the WPL, one footnote – an enduring one from last season – is the quiet sigh that there are only two Indian captains in the five-team tournament, with the other three being Australian. That both captains to win the trophy and carry a star on their crests are Indian is a sweet retort to this concern and Smriti believes things are just getting started for India’s leadership pool in the women’s game.
“Last year when Mumbai Indians played Delhi Capitals in the final, even though I have many friends in Delhi, deep down I wanted Harman (Harmanpreet Kaur) to lift the trophy because in the first edition of the WPL, if an Indian captain had to win, if not me it had to be Harman,” Smriti gushed.
“In that context for me to be the second Indian captain to win… I am really happy. That really shows the kind of depth Indian cricket has and this is just the start, we still have a long way to go in terms of Indian captains,” she added.
In season one, Smriti struggled with the bat, managing just 149 runs in eight innings. Then, Lanning went up to her in the second fixture these two sides clashed in and had a brief chat about her struggle with the bat, even shadow-demoing some technical tips in the part of the interaction broadcast cameras caught. This year, we’ve seen Smriti take that element forward with her players.
A standout image in RCB’s campaign has to be that one-run loss to Delhi a week before their final triumph. That loss put their campaign in jeopardy. One frame in the video the franchise shared of that night saw Smriti speaking to Richa Ghosh, who had been run out trying to score the winning run, in the player tunnel. When asked what she told Richa then, Smriti had said earlier, “I think I’ll leave it between me and Richa.” After the young keeper-batter hit the winning runs in the final, Smriti was happy to drop the cloak of secrecy.
“The game got dragged a bit more than what we would have liked for sure but I’m happy Richa got to finish it. She had a bit of unfinished business. I had spoken to her about this, and I’m very happy she got to score the winning run… That it came off her bat, not mine. I’m really happy about that,” she said.
It’s not just an empathy for others that’s developed more over the past few months, it’s also about a level of kindness Smriti is showing herself too. Her batting form dipped in the second half of the tournament, where she’d go for glory shots, or not play along the ground till she got a sense of it. As someone who goes very hard on herself particularly when the strike rate drops, it was important to stay calm in the final. It’s a level of maturity this season has brought for her.
“It’s not like I haven’t played in this gear when I play for the India team when we’re chasing a low total. I do try and stay till whatever time I can on the field to take us home. There’s a fine balance in T20 cricket -- especially when you’re batting first as an opener to understand what the conditions and the wicket is like -- you don’t want to be too defensive or too aggressive because you don’t know what’s a perfect total sometimes when you’re batting first. Going a bit easy on myself is definitely something to think about but, naturally, I like to try and play a few shots which, I think, will remain the same,” she added.
Lanning went through much of the game in solitude in her head and got the comfort of a dinner with everyone together in the corridor of the team hotel. While Smriti, who has been lifted by everyone else and is in one of the tightest group effort type efforts, needed a few moments to soak in what had happened.
“First thing I did was I went to the dressing room and sat. It’s hard to celebrate the way others do. I don’t know, there’s some defect,” she said.
“This whole group has been through a lot in this tournament from a time when we didn’t know we’d make the eliminator, to that crazy eliminator and then the final. The whole group stuck at it. One thing we did for sure was flight back. Even today, I think we fought back really well. Maybe it is difficult for me to individually express, but there’s a lot of gratitude for the fans and the franchise as a whole and the whole group,” she said.
With the WPL title in the bag and a number of records coming with it, it’s easy to lose sight of this Lanning vs Mandhana duel. As gruelling as it may be, particularly with Lanning as that figure to try and emulate, Smriti has shown she’s more than ready for the task.
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