How Smriti Mandhana, Most Expensive Player In WPL At INR 3.4 crore, Proved A Point To Jemimah Rodrigues After She Hurt Her Ego

India Women’s top-order batters in Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues are not only the best of friends on and off-the-field but also share a sister-like bond with each other. In fact, on multiple occasions, Rodrigues has claimed how Mandhana has been nothing less than an elder sister and a mentor-like figure for her since the two met each other in the national team.

Be it laughing at each other’s lame jokes, or having some funny singing sessions, or even recreating some of the famous Bollywood movie scenes, the duo don’t hesitate expressing their friendship and bonhomie via the social media handles.

However, the customary leg-pulling and banter between the two, once led to an inadvertent battle of egos around a year ago.

How Smriti Mandhana Proved A Point To Jemimah Rodrigues After She Hurt Her Ego

During an interaction with popular YouTuber Vikram Sathaye around nine months ago, Smriti revealed how Jemimah had once managed to stroke her ego during latter’s attempt to indulge in her leg-pulling.

The southpaw batter remarked how during India’s tour of New Zealand 2022, Jemimah began teasing her at the dinner table by stating that she (Smriti) did not know how to play the sweep shot. While Smriti, in all humility admitted the fact and remarked that she’d work on the particular shot, she wasn’t going to just let Jemimah have her moment. She impulsively went on to then remark about her (Jemimah’s) inability to play the pull shot!

The Indian opener then exclaimed how she went on to nail the sweep shot for six in one of the matches later and advised her to not tame her ego ever again.

“Match se pehle, raat ko hum aise hi dinner kar rahe the. To woh bada mujhe bol rahi thi ki tujhe sweep marna nahi aata. Maine bola, ‘Haan, nahi aata, seekhungi kabhi’. Toh main usko boli, ki tujhe bada pull marne aata hai. Next match me maine ek off-spinner ko six maara, to maine bola, ‘dekh kuch bhi karne ka, ego hurt nahi karne ka’. Uske baad usne Tahuhu ko pull maara, aur bola ki ‘dekh kuch bhi karne ka, ego hurt nahi karne ka‘ [Prior to the match. we were having our dinner. She started commenting that I didn’t know how to sweep. I was like, ‘Yes, I don’t know, but will learn some day’. Then I told her that even you don’t know how to pull the ball. The next match, I hit a six to an off-spinner and exclaimed, ‘Do anything you wish, but don’t ever hurt my ego’. After that, she pulled a delivery bowled by [Lea] Tahuhu and was like, ‘Do anything you wish, but don’t ever hurt my ego’].”

Smriti Mandhana Was The Most Expensive Player In WPL Auction

With a base price of INR 50 lakh, Smriti was the first player whose name was up in the WPL 2023 auction earlier this year. As expected, there was a bidding war between Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore as the two franchises broke in the war after MI’s INR 2.3 crore bid.

Eventually, after the price crossed INR 3 crore, Smriti was sold to RCB for INR 3.4 crore. This bid would turn out to be the the most expensive one in the auction event.

However, the RCB captain could not come up with an impressive performance for her side during the inaugural season. The 27-year-old could only amass 148 runs across eight innings at an average of 18.62, without even a single half-century under her name.