Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) women’s team captain Smriti Mandhana has revealed that she and her teammates were motivated by Virat Kohli’s pep talk last year. Mandhana recalled Virat Kohli’s words of encouragement after leading her team to a historic win in the recently concluded Women’s Premier League (WPL). RCB beat Delhi Capitals by eight wickets to win WPL 2024. When asked to bowl first, RCB bowled out Delhi for just 113 runs in the 19th over.

Meg Lanning and Shafali Verma gave Delhi a solid start by adding 64 runs for the first wicket before the latter’s dismissal led to an extraordinary collapse. Sophie Molineux dismissed Shafali for 44 before dismissing Jemimah Rodrigues and Alice Capsey for ducks in the space of four balls to reduce Delhi to 64 for 3.

Delhi could not recover from the setback and were eventually bowled out for a modest total of 113 runs. In response, RCB chased down the total with three balls remaining. Mandhana (31), Sophie (32) and Ellyse Perry (35) played crucial knocks to help their team reach the total with ease.

Speaking after the match, Mandhana revealed how Virat Kohli’s motivational words helped the team turn things around after a disastrous start in the WPL.

“I remember in the last WPL season, Virat Bhaiya came to the camp and had that pep talk with us which helped me a lot personally and also the entire team,” Smriti Mandhana said.

Smriti Mandhana said, “I remember in the last WPL season, Virat bhaiya came to the camp and had that pep talk with us which helped me a lot personally and also the entire team.” [Press] pic.twitter.com/S324xOIgl2

—Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) March 18, 2024

Virat Kohli’s motivational words for RCB women revealed by Smriti Mandhana:

Last year, RCB was going through a tough time in the WPL. They finished in fourth place in the five-team competition after managing to win only two of their eight league matches. The Smriti Mandhana-led team started the tournament in a disastrous manner as they lost their first five games.

While the team was struggling to win at least one match, Virat Kohli had given a motivational speech to the players. After RCB lost their fifth consecutive game in WPL 2023, the batting superstar shared her own experience with Mandhana and her teammates and motivated them to bounce back.

“I have been playing IPL for 15 years and I still haven’t won it. But that doesn’t stop me from being excited every year. That’s all I can do. That is the effort I can put into every match and every tournament I play,” he had said.

“If we win, great. If we don’t, then I won’t go to my grave thinking that if I had won an IPL, I would be a happy man. It doesn’t happen like that. So always think about the opportunity he has instead of how bad it is right now. There is always another side to the coin and it could always be worse than this.

“And the fact that we haven’t won the IPL, but I still feel like we have the best fans in the world. Just because we were always committed in every game we played for RCB. That has been the most special thing for our fans. There is no guarantee of giving you a cup every year, but there is a guarantee of giving 110% every year, and that is all you can strive to do,” he had added.

Kohli’s words made a big difference as RCB won two of their last three games and finished the tournament in a respectable manner.