'Warrior' Shreyanka Patil battled through pain to help secure RCB's historic WPL title

There was always something special about Shreyanka Patil.

One can spot that spark when the happy-go-lucky girl, always up for some fun off the field, transforms herself into a fighter once on it. Be it with the bowl, bat or diving on the field to save runs, it is hard to keep Shreyanka quiet. 

“I am a different beast when there is some turn,” said the off-spinner after her four-wicket haul that shifted momentum in Royal Challengers Bangalore’s favour in the final of the WPL against Delhi Capitals on Sunday evening.  

Following Sophie Molineux’s breakthrough in the eighth over in which she scalped three wickets, captain Smriti Mandhana handed the ball to Shreyanka to spin her magic.

The 21-year-old from Bengaluru gave away four singles in her first over. Her next over (11th) was when Shreyanka turned the tide completely by removing the dangerous DC skipper Meg Lanning (23 runs), courtesy an LBW, that marked  the beginning of a batting collapse.

The youngster, who was one of the breakout stars of the first edition of WPL, went on to pick three more wickets to end with figures 4/12 in her spell of 3.3 overs to don the Purple Cap with 13 wickets in eight matches.

She also won the Emerging Player of the Year award this edition. 

The performance that came in the title clash was despite nursing a hairline fracture in Shreyanka’s left hand that she sustained during the Mumbai Indians’ match.

This was also after sitting out for two league matches and a rather quiet outing in the Bengaluru leg of the tournament where she managed to take two wickets in a total of nine overs while conceding 100 runs. 

“Shreyanka is a warrior,” Malolan Rangarajan had said about the all-rounder’s turn of fortunes at the post-match press conference after their win over Mumbai Indians in the Eliminator last Friday. 

“Just the growth of Shreyanka in the last 12-16 months, when we identified and then brought her into the set-up. You could see that she was not behaving like someone of her age or her experience. She was like, slightly above that. She was always in for the fight. That’s the spark you’re looking for. Everyone has the skill but it’s a dog fight which happens inside (on the field) and you’re up for it: Shreyanka always had that in her," Rangarajan said.

“Her growth over the last 12 months – playing for India, leading South Zone team in the Zonal one-dayers has helped her develop and understand her own game better. She herself was the first to admit that she didn’t start the tournament as well as she would have liked. But she was also the first one to come up and say, ‘I am not bowling well’,” Rangarajan added.

Everybody associated with RCB seems to be in awe of Shreyanka, and rightly so. Last year, it was Ellyse Perry (this year's Orange Cap winner for most runs) heaping praise on the upcoming star and this season her team-mates and the coaching staff take pride in developing a talent that was waiting to burst into the international women’s cricket scene.  

“Especially to play with the injury she’s playing with. Nobody would think that she has an injury as she goes into bat and sweeps the first ball. So these are characters that we are very proud to have in RCB and we are even prouder to see what she does for both the franchise and the country,” explained Rangarajan, who is also RCB’s head of scouting.