Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues are standing on the opposite sides of the glittering WPL trophy as the cameras click away.

Mandhana's RCB, the most commanding team of the season, are on the verge of becoming concurrent champions and scripting history. Rodrigues' Delhi Capitals, the most consistent team in competition history, are one win away from breaking the curse. But from the mood on finals eve, it doesn't seem like these stakes are weighing them down.

Mandhana and Rodrigues head into the WPL 2026 final wearing different colours, but opposite dugouts can't undo years of growing up together in the sport. They have shared more than just dressing room and victories.

The cameras have been rolling from before they arrived, and now there's non-stop banter throughout. A lot of hand-gesturing - mostly from Rodrigues - folllowed by a lot of giggling, mostly from Mandhana. Playful nudging from both, and a lot of posing for the cameras: something that doesn't come naturally to them, but which they've grown accustomed to. They're managing alright.

It's only when they're asked to do a stare-down that they break character a lot more. Retakes make the exercise last a bit longer. But then, they've endured far more over the rollercoaster of the last few months.

When anxiety sucked away Rodrigues' form, confidence and joy, Mandhana was her support system away from home. A sounding board, for technique and for navigating those unspoken battles. Together they went on to win the World Cup, a shared career-defining triumph that ended a drought Indian women's cricket had borne for years.

RCB know what this longing feels like. Under Mandhana's leadership in 2024, against DC, the franchise put an end to a 17-year wait. In the chaos that followed, she famously ran back to the dressing room for a moment of solitude. When she returned, her first instinct was not podium but the Delhi dugout. She hugged her people - Rodrigues first, then Radha Yadav and Arundhati Reddy. Two of them would later join her in RCB colours.

This bond forged on the field only grew stronger off it. When life intervened beyond cricket and Mandhana hit a deeply personal setback, Rodrigues stayed. Professional and commerical committments took a backseat - a WBBL stint forgone and shoots postponed. She instead chose the one who had become family. There was nothing to fix, nothing to explain. Just presence. Just Rodrigues returning the support she herself had known not long ago.

Now they stand across from each other, and the game demands rivalry. But in reality, the banter keeps seeping back in that they can't even keep their game faces on for long before cracking up yet again.

"Just chill as much as you can."

Rodrigues said it first, in jest, on what's her advice to Mandhana having thrice lived through the long, momentum-draining wait between qualification and final.

The very next minute, the roles were reversed. Mandhana was asked what she has to offer, to the first-time captain across the table, as someone who's already led her franchise to a drought-ending title. She didn't search for a new one.

"Just chill as much as you can." This time, both said it almost in perfect sync.

Both Rodrigues and Mandhana's RCB have been kicking back lately - in Vadodara's laidback cafes and on Goan beaches respectively. Both have returned refreshed, with their game faces on ahead of the big final.

Rodrigues rise at DC was planned but has come with a steep learning curve. Three seasons under Meg Lanning reshaped her understanding of leadership before the passing of the baton. The road to the final, unlike previous ones, was rocky and peppered with losses that tested belief. On her young shoulders rests the chance to replace previous heartbreak with an ending DC have been chasing since the beginning.

Mandhana's tasted this success before. But the start to her captaincy in high-stakes franchise circus wasn't too dissimilar. Losses, learnings from Lanning, and a spectacular fightback that brought home a trophy in 12 months. Now, it's about asserting dominance that can put an end to the WPL trope that top seeds always falter.

Thursday will decide who lifts the ultimate prize. For a hot minute they'll set friendship aside. But once the final ball is bowled? They'll find each other again, like they always have.