Charlotte Edwards termed Harmanpreet Kaur to be a very calm and quiet person. Ellyse Perry described Smriti Mandhana's personality as introverted. But the Indian duo cut slightly different figures on Friday night.
Harmanpreet could barely sit in the dugout. She was pacing up and down, hardly able to watch what was unfolding in the middle. Her usually jolly demeanour gave way to a dead-pan serious look as the last 12 balls of the Eliminator played out. Much of the drama was injected into the match after she was dismissed. She passed on a few instructions to every new batter walking out. Other than that, she could do no more than watch as Mumbai Indians' chase went south.
Meanwhile, on the field, Mandhana was keyed up too, though not without purpose. The RCB captain positioned herself at cover one ball, diving full-stretch to save a few runs. She then moved to backward square leg next ball. And then mid-on. Back to square leg. Covers. Mid-on again. Royal Challengers Bangalore had made an inroad and she wanted to squeeze the game shut. She waved her hands incessantly to get her fielders in the right spot. Wickets were followed by a fist-pump and a high-five, but her mind moved quickly to getting the field right for the next ball.
Mumbai needed 32 off 24 and then 20 off 18. Even when Harmanpreet fell, the ask was 16 off 12 in a chase of 136 to make a second successive WPL final. But, much to the delight of the 27,000-plus at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, RCB managed to hold their nerve and bowl three boundary-less overs to eke out a five-run win. After finishing fourth in the inaugural season, they are now in touching distance of the WPL 2024 trophy. And they got there in the RCB-est of ways.
Harmanpreet was doing Harmanpreet things - started steadily, kept up with the asking rate and took Mumbai closer. Then, Mandhana handed the ball to the hero of the night: Shreyanka Patil. She came in for the 18th over - 63m boundary on the leg side and the 46m boundary on the off side. A deep square leg, deep midwicket, long-on and long-off stood ready. Only a week ago, with similar dimensions at the same ground but on a different surface, Harmanpreet put on a power-hitting show and took 24 off a Sneh Rana over at the death.
Patil ran in and tossed one up generously, so much that Harmanpreet couldn't resist the temptation to charge down. She swung for the aisles and missed, but so did Richa Ghosh. A stumping chance was fluffed. Was that the match for RCB? Mandhana, standing at cover, hid her face and threw her head back in disappointment. The stadium went so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Patil did not react much, and kept the next four balls to singles. Mumbai needed 16 off 13.
And then Harmanpreet couldn't resist the bait again. Patil went slightly wide of the crease and flighted it up again, a bit outside off. She was willing to take the risk of the batter hitting her over the shorter off side, even tempting her to do so. But Harmanpreet charged down and looked to hack it over long-on. Her shape and the follow-through was such that you'd think she had middled it. Edwards thought so. But Patil had managed to get the ball to dip. As a result, the bat turned in Harmanpreet's hands, and she dragged it towards Sophie Devine, who reverse-cupped it above her head while moving back a few steps.
A few nights ago, Patil had varied her pace, changed angles, picked up four wickets and yet ended up on the losing side. This time, she had managed to have a major hand in turning the fate of the match in RCB's favour, that too after being denied a wicket earlier in the over - and not for the first time in the match.
RCB had entrusted Patil with the new ball and, in her second over, she managed to have Yastika Bhatia, who returned to the Mumbai Indians XI after missing a game due to illness, miscue one towards wide mid-off. But the ball popped out of Disha Kasat's hands upon landing as she ran to her right and dived. Two balls later, though, Patil managed to dismiss Hayley Matthews to provide the opening. She got one to land on a length and spin in on middle and leg, which Matthews only managed to hit down deep midwicket's throat.
Opting to bat first, RCB lost three wickets in the powerplay, found themselves at 49 for 4 and then 84 for 5 with five overs to go. But Perry scored 66 off 50 to help them get to 135, which at best can be termed a challenging score - Mandhana felt they were 20 runs short. But Patil's four overs proved to be the defending champions' undoing. She gave away just 16 runs and returned with two decisive blows.
"Everyone has the skill but it's a dog-fight in there and you have to be up for it. Shreyanka always had it in her," Malolan Rangarajan, RCB assistant coach, said. "Her growth over the last 12 months - playing for India, leading South Zone in the Zonal One-Days - has developed her better and helped her understand her own game better.
"She was the first to admit that the start of her tournament wasn't as great. She came and asked, 'I am not bowling well. What can I do?' She'll come up with the solutions too. That's her character. When you see things like that, you know that when there are crunch moments, these characters will stand up and deliver. Shreyanka is a warrior.
"When we saw her playing for Karnataka, she was a 19-year-old playing for the senior team, bowling the tough overs and it wasn't like she was just participating. She was delivering the yorkers under pressure. Along with her coach Arjun [Dev], she does center-wicket practice and simulation, and there's nothing left to chance. The way she was practising was different from her peers, slightly ahead of them."
Walking to the ground, you couldn't spot a single Mumbai Indians' blue among the fans. They donned the RCB colours, cheered for their team and queued up from about two hours before the match. People with the RCB jerseys were not hard to miss even in the metro. Patil ensured those loyal fans did not go home disappointed, even if they had lost their voice in a cracker of a finish.