The first scoring shot off Smriti Mandhana's bat was the assurance RCB desperately needed. Just past 9:30 PM, Grace Harris had just been cleaned up seven balls into a tall chase of 204 for the WPL 2026 crown, and the task was suddenly looking enormous. The glorious off-drive their captain hit past the bowler was so impeccably timed it was hard to believe Mandhana was playing with a high fever. She was the key to a second title in three years - or a bottled chase after a dominant run through the season. Yet, Mandhana wouldn't find strike for most of the PowerPlay.

Not that RCB were in strife. Georgia Voll had scored more in her first 20 balls at the crease than she had scored in last-two innings combined. The runs came mostly through the seven boundaries - lap, flick, scoop, drive all on display - forcing Delhi Capitals to make a double-bowling change. But Mandhana stranded off-strike felt almost counterintuitive. She was on 6 off 5 when faced with the last two deliveries of the PowerPlay, and decided to maximise. An ugly hoick that went over the in-field followed by a more authoritative slogsweep of a back-of-the-hand slower ball.

For the next 13 overs, Delhi Capitals watched helplessly, Georgia Voll giggled abundantly and the RCB dugout strapped in comfortably as Mandhana walked the talk.

"There was a shift in her mindset in the previous game about how we want to play on this wicket, what the challenges were for our team, and how she could help address that," head coach Malolan Rangarajan would later reveal. As soon as Mandhana walked off at the innings break, she told the coach that the 200+ total in front of them isn't necessarily a reflection of how well the pitch is playing. "Yeh chhe over mein marne ka score nahi hai, 18-19 tak jayega. [It's not going to be a walk in the park. So, let's make sure we are there till 18-19]."

Mandhana's footwork, placement and timing, above all, bore no inkling of a body that wasn't at its 100 per cent. The imperious backfoot punch off Sree Charani, in the first-over of spin, saw the southpaw pierce a fiercely protected off-side field. At the first time-out after, seven overs in, RCB were almost at par with the asking rate. Mandhana was ticking off runs as if on autopilot, and DC switched to plan B.

Off-spin had traditionally been her bane, and Delhi brought on one from either ends in the hope. That they punted on Shafali Verma's 'golden arm' ahead of a more conventional option in Minnu Mani spoke of their desperation to nip this threat in the bud. Verma offered extra width, Mandhana rocked back and opened the bat face to glide it perfectly between the closely-stationed short-third and backward point.

Mandhana's movement in the crease was her biggest strength on the night. It induced line and length mistakes from DC bowlers more frequently they would have liked, and the RCB captain feasted on the generous freebies. A flat pull for six when Nandni Sharma went too short with her slower ball brought up RCB's hundred at the halfway mark and saw the left-hander go past Ellyse Perry as the franchise's leading run-getter in WPL. Marizanne Kapp, brought back to break the century stand, instead dished out two slot balls and the southpaw lofted them cleanly over the bowler's head.

Distressed DC kept making frequent changes - barring Nandni, no bowler outside of PowerPlay bowled two overs from an end - but Mandhana had answers to all. The shot of the night, perhaps, was a tie between the shimmy down the track to loft Charani over long-off for six and the sublime inside-out over covers off Sneh Rana. The ease with which the Mandhana seamlesly alternated between punishing the bowlers for their mistakes and caressing the ball through the field showcased her versatility on the night and in the conditions, precisely what RCB needed the most.

"She saved one of her best innings for the final," Rangarajan said of the 41-ball 87. "The reason why I say that is, yes, she's been in very good form in the last twelve months or so, but the way she batted today was inhuman. I don't even know the word to use. So classy, so elegant. You could see that she was in control of what she wanted to do. It didn't look like a chase that was 200, the way she batted."

By the time Delhi managed to dislodge Mandhana, incidentally in the 19th over, RCB's ask was down to a trickle. The RCB skipper struck at 210 against spin (42 off 20) and 214.28 (45 off 21) in an unreal acceleration that made Delhi's attack look ordinary. In plundering 81 off 36 once she took charge, her dot-ball percent against spin was a scarcely believable 4.7. Her dots overall were just five, and post PowerPlay Mandhana hit every third ball for a boundary.

On a record-breaking night, moments before they were crowned champions, RCB saw their captain bend the game to her will. Mandhana's now the first-ever Indian to claim the Orange Cap, fifth to a 1000 runs in the league and the holder of most century stands, three of which were this season.

None of this came as a surprise to Rangarajan who saw the grind away from the cameras despite the dominant form Mandhana was in. Ever since linking up with the team at the start of January, the captain had been fine-tuning her batting and "cracked the code two days back" much to the coach's delight.

"Smriti is very, very specific about her own batting - the feel in her batting, where she's tapping the bat, how she's lifting it, etc. She's a nerd when it comes to her own batting, and I guess that's why she's ended up achieving what she's achieved in life. She's always looking to improve, always looking to get better at her skill and that journey has been happening since the 3rd [January] when she joined RCB [pre-season camp]. Her last training session [two days before the final] was among her best she's batted. She was very, very comfortable."

Even a "massive flu" couldn't then tie her down. In the hours leading up to the game, she assured her coach, "nahin, koi problem nahi. I'll be there."

When the night demanded WPL's highest-ever chase for the silverware from RCB - bettering their own record of 203 at this very ground - Mandhana indeed showed up, and how.