Home Disadvantage: How did RCB lose every game in Bangalore in WPL 2025?

The 2025 Women’s Premier League campaign unravelled for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru. And it unravelled rapidly in front of their home fans over the last week.

RCB had a splendid start to their title defence, winning their first two matches at the Kotambi Stadium in Vadodara.

Expectations were sky-high as the WPL caravan moved to the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

It was, after all, a first homecoming for Smriti Mandhana and co since they were crowned the champions last year.

An ideal scenario was set. Royal Challengers Bengaluru win their next four matches and secure their playoffs spot. The Lucknow and Mumbai leg is just a formality.

It was supposed to be a fairy tale.

Unfortunately, RCB finished their home campaign for the season winless. A massive disappointment for the team and the passionate fans at the often fully-packed M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

So, what went wrong for the reigning champions at home?

Almost everything – right from the toss to questionable decisions on the field.

Toss luck deserts Mandhana

The 2025 Women’s Premier League has been heavily skewed towards the chasing side. Captains winning the toss opt to field first without batting an eyelid.

The statistics support it, too. Only one of the 14 matches played so far this edition has been won by a team batting first.

In fact, even in the two matches that RCB won, they had opted to field first.

But come the home leg in Bengaluru, the toss luck deserted skipper Mandhana. She lost all four tosses and were asked to bat first in each of those occasions.

The RCB, to their credit, managed to drag one of those matches – against the UP Warriorz – into a Super over but ended up losing it.

Their first home match against Mumbai Indians was closely fought as well, but the former champions romped home with a ball to spare.

Questionable tactics

Surely, it was not all down to toss. There were some questionable moves made as well on the field by the Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

For example, Smriti Mandhana and Richa Ghosh came to bat in the super over against the Warriorz.

All-rounder Ellyse Perry had hit an unbeaten 56-ball 90 in the match earlier. Opener Danielle Wyatt-Hodge also had enjoyed a good stint in the middle, scoring her first half-century in the first innings.

Yet, when it came to the super over, they backed Mandhana and Ghosh. This is not to state that the two Indians are bad with the bat, but there certainly were better options available.

Add to that that both Mandhana and Ghosh were prized out for single-digit scores in the match; the move seems even more baffling.

Mandhana’s form

Smriti Mandhana has never been a heavy run scorer in the Women’s Premier League. Yet, her returns with the bat have been underwhelming.

In the four matches played in Bengaluru, Mandhana has had just a solitary inning of note. A quickfire 26 off 13 balls against Mumbai Indians.

Other than that, the southpaw has struggled. She was removed for single-digit scores in the matches against UP Warriorz and Delhi Capitals.

Mandhana did score 10 against the Gujarat Giants, but it took her 20 deliveries to conjure that.

With their skipper not firing, RCB found themselves on the backfoot in the powerplay more often than not.

No Perry no party

The two matches that RCB managed to drag into the final over in front of their home crowd were largely thanks to the brilliance of Ellyse Perry.

The Australian bettered her personal best WPL score twice in two innings – 81 against Mumbai Indians and 90* against UP Warriorz – to give the Royal Challengers Bengaluru at least a fighting chance.

As Perry failed to click in the next match against Gujarat Giants, their first innings scores read a sorry 125/7.

Perry did manage an unbeaten 47-ball 60 in their final home match against the Delhi Capitals but there was a lack of support from the other end as they posted 147/5 in 20 overs.

Spinners struggle

With their two first-choice players – Shreyanka Patil and Sophie Molineux – both out of action, Royal Challengers Bengaluru have struggled with their spin department.

While Georgia Wareham has played her role well with her leg spin, there’s been a lack of quality from the other end.

The likes of Kanika Ahuja and experienced Ekta Bist haven’t clicked as well as the team management would have hoped for.

They did bring in Sneh Rana as a replacement player, and even she has struggled for wickets since taking a three-wicket haul on her debut against the UP Warriorz.