Final ball of the 18th over. RCB’s Shreyanka Patil was up against Harmanpreet Kaur. The MI skipper came down the track and took the aerial route but found the safe hands of Sophie Devine near the long-on rope. The ball looked like crossing the fence and taking the defending champions to yet another finale but Sophie’s ‘Devine’ intervention changed the plot in a matter of seconds. Kaur walked back for 33 off 30, leading to Mumbai Indians’ gut-wrenching defeat on Friday night in New Delhi.
For most of the game, MI had been on the money and top of RCB. They caused a collapse and left RCB struggling at 84/5 before Ellyse Perry once again made a crucial contribution—66 off 55, taking her team to 135/6 in 20 overs.
MI too lost a couple of quick wickets at the beginning of the chase and were 68/3. But with Harmanpreet Kaur in the middle, no target looked big. Kaur, alongside Amelia Kerr, made the run-chase look steady and quite comfortable. But Patil’s diligence added gave ‘hope’ to RCB.
The spinner had almost got the better of Harmanpreet on the very first ball of the penultimate over. The MI skipper charged down the ground to heave but missed the ball completely and so did Richa Ghosh behind the stumps. But success wasn’t far from RCB as they caught the big fish by the end of the over which entirely changed the complexion of the game.
“I’m not able to pinpoint when that belief came in but as soon as Harmanpreet got out, we thought something was there,” said RCB’s assistant coach Malolan Rangarajan during the post-match press conference.
That is how the “absolute champion” Shreyanka Patil functions. The first chance went begging but she created a second one in a matter of a few deliveries to certainly put her team in a very commanding situation.
“When we missed Harmanpreet Kaur’s stumping that was something we felt that if we would have got her out, there was a chance. But we got another opportunity. Although it was a regulation catch, you know the pressure is there. But Sophie Devine is an experienced player and that’s why you need experienced players. Shreyanka Patil has been an absolute champion,” he added.
What Patil did in that over also impressed her coach Arjun Dev who in general believes that her best is yet to come in the tournament.
“Oh! That was special. To create two chances in the same over against someone like Harmanpreet Kaur, that was the game-changing moment for me,” Dev said while talking to CricketNext.
‘Warrior’ Shreyanka is always a step ahead
The RCB spinner didn’t really start the tournament on a high and an economy rate of 9.21 made that quite evident. But the young spinner, playing the second WPL season with RCB, didn’t shy away from accepting that she needed to put in more effort and get things back on track.
“The growth of Shreyanka over 12-16 months, when we identified her and we brought her into the setup, you could see that she wasn’t behaving like someone of her age or her experience. She was slightly above. She was always in for the fight and that’s the spark you are looking for. She herself would admit that she didn’t start the tournament as she would have liked. But she was the first one to come out and say ‘I’m not bowling well’. She came up with a solution. She is just a warrior,” Rangarajan said.
The 21-year-old brought herself back into the groove and after missing a couple of games due to an injury, she stamped authority against DC in Delhi and scalped four wickets for 26.
‘Shreyanka ticked all the boxes’
The Karnataka spinner has been a very serious student of the game. From having a fitness coach to having match simulation practices, Shreyanka does it all that make her game better and stronger. The work ethic has certainly been one of the main reasons why RCB backed her in the initial stage.
“You take me back to about 18 months. When we first saw her playing for Karnataka, she was a 19-year-old playing for the senior team, bowling the tough overs. We found out how she works on her game. She has her own ground with her coach, she has centre wicket practice and simulation practice. So, that also was a big tick mark for us,” Rangarajan said.
“What we knew was that she was doing everything for her game. She had a fitness coach, personal coach, the way she was practicing was different from her peers and as she joined the setup, we knew that we could back her,” he further added.
RCB are in the final and will face DC at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday. The Smriti Mandhana-led side would hope that Patil who ended up getting two wickets for 16 runs replicates her performance in the title clash as well.
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