WPL 2023 Update: On Wednesday, the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) team, captained by Smriti Mandhana, defeated the Uttar Pradesh Warriorz (UPW) by a score of five wickets in the Women’s Premier League 2023. Prior to this victory, the RCB team had gone winless in their first five games of the tournament. Mandhana and his teammates still have a shot at making it into the playoffs, but it’s not looking good for them at this point. But the first win comes as a ray of hope and will motivate the players for their future matches.
The spirit of the RCB camp was elevated prior to their match against UPW by the presence of Indian superstar Virat Kohli. Kohli, who plays for the RCB in the IPL, is currently in Mumbai, to take part in India’s maiden one-day international match against Australia, which will take place on March 17. Kohli skipped the India men’s optional training session on Wednesday to meet with the RCB team before their WPL encounter against the UP Warriorz.
Virat began by saying that he has been playing IPL for 15 years now and the team hasn’t won a single title yet. But this does not stop him from putting in efforts or showing up at every match equally excited and motivated. His happiness does not depend on winning the IPL title but on how he shows up at every game. He went on to motivate the women’s team and said that there’s always two sides to a situation and it could be much worse than this. He goes on to ask them to have faith in themselves and the fans who have stood beside the players through thick and thin. Virat Kohli ended by saying that there’s no guarantee of winning the cup every year but the most we can do is give our best in every game.
The video was shared by the official twitter handle of RCB on Thursday while Virat Kohli was paying a visit to motivate the women’s team after their first win in the Women’s Premier League. The speech came as a breath of fresh air for the players as they have been facing defeat after defeat since the league began.
RCB’s Kanika Ahuja was all praise for Virat Kohli in her maiden press conference of her young career, and attributed the team’s extra incentive for their must-win match in the WPL to a pep talk given by Virat Kohli.
Nonetheless, RCB needs to win the remaining two matches to enter the knock offs and stay in the top three at the points table.