Her personal coach, Anant Tambvekar, was more vocal, however. Speaking exclusively to DC, he said, “I’ll tell you the story of what happened after the first WPL last year. “As everyone knows, RCB lost badly then. After the tournament, we sat for hours, trying to rectify what had gone wrong for Smriti personally. We came to the conclusion that she has to play her game without any pressure. Fear of failure shouldn’t be there for any reason.”
Giving details, Tambvekar says, “Accordingly, we focused more on power hitting, used different tracks and different spin bowling. We had 2-3-hour sessions at the open nets.”
On a less practical note, he said, “One more important thing, I stopped watching her game live. Maybe it’s a superstition. And I didn’t even watch this year’s WPL games on TV.”
He shared that, before starting the WPL, he and Smriti had discussed how big it would be if she lifted the championship trophy. “And that’s
what happened last night,” he said jubilantly, signing off as ‘a very proud coach.”
Meanwhile, Smriti Mandhana joined her RCB team in shaking a leg in celebration on the podium at the packed Arun Jaitley Stadium.
