Smriti Mandhana, Virat Kohli and the story of a bad patch

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Editor's note: I love watching Smriti Mandhana bat. It’s not just the strokes, it is the little quirks that endear a player to you. Harmanpreet Kaur, for instance, does this thing where, as the bowler is running in, she bounces lightly like a Slinky-toy someone poked with a finger, then goes totally still as the bowler loads up. Just before settling into her stance, Jemimah Rodrigues stares intently at the handle of her upraised bat, as if reading the instructions inscribed there. Mandhana’s most notable feature is her smile. Initially, I used to think it was a rictus, a grimace of effort; over time, I realized that it was a genuine expression of the pleasure she feels as her bat meets the ball in a decisive arc. I missed that smile through the recent Women’s Premier League. The Royal Challengers Bangalore captain looked haunted, the way I imagine a French aristocrat might have looked as he climbed up the steps of the tumbril. And the sense of impending doom was most marked when the opposition matched her up against an off-spinner early …