Ace India batter and Royal Challengers Bengaluru skipper Smriti Mandhana on Thursday went past Australia’s Ellyse Perry to become the highest run-scorer for the franchise in the Women’s Premier League history.
Mandhana, who has led her team to the second final in the four seasons of the tournament, had earlier scored a brilliant 96 against the Delhi Capitals in a league stage game of WPL 2026 and in the crucial final against the same opponent, she came out all guns blazing.
Ahead of the fourth edition of the tournament, Perry had pulled out and one would have imagined her withdrawal to be a big dent in RCB’s chances of winning a second WPL title.
But the franchise didn’t face any issues in the absence of Perry and went on to win five straight games
to become the first team to qualify for the playoffs. Although they suffered consecutive losses in their sixth and seventh matches, they won their final league game to qualify for the summit showdown.
While Perry had 972 runs in three editions of the tournament, Mandhana finished season 4 with 1023 runs to her kitty.
Notably, Mandhana’s 165-run partnership with another Aussie, Georgia Voll, was the first 100-run stand in the history of Women’s Premier League finals.
Mandhana also went past England skipper and Mumbai Indians’ Nat Sciver-Brunt to become the player to be involved in the most 100-run stands in the Women’s Premier League.
WPL’s most prolific century-partnership batters
6 – Smriti Mandhana*
5 – Nat Sciver-Brunt
4 – Shafali Verma
4 – Meg Lanning
4 – Hayley Matthews
Mandhana also became the fifth cricketer with 1000-plus runs in the Women’s Premier League after Sciver-Brunt, UP Warriorz skipper Meg Lanning, MI captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Delhi’s Shafali Verma.
Mandhana and Voll’s 165-run partnership was also the highest for any wicket in the Women’s Premier League.
Top partnerships in WPL for any wicket
165 – Smriti Mandhana & Georga Voll (RCB) vs DC, Vadodara, 2026 Final
162 – Meg Lanning & Shafali Verma (DC) vs RCB, Brabourne, 2023
146 – Jess Jonassen & Shafali Verma (DC) vs RCB, Bengaluru, 2025
142 – Smriti Mandhana & Georga Voll (RCB) vs DC, DY Patil, 2026
140 – Beth Mooney & Laura Wolvaardt (GG) vs RCB, Delhi, 2024
