"He actually knows my name" - Shreyanka Patil says meeting Virat Kohli 'moment of her life'
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) all-rounder Shreyanka Patil had the "moment of her life" on Tuesday when she met Virat Kohli during a franchise event.
Shreyanka and the rest of the Smriti Mandhana-led side got a guard of honor from Kohli and other members of the men's team for their title-winning campaign in the Women's Premier League 2024 at Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday. They distributed goodies to the crowd and did a lap of honor with the franchise's first-ever title.
In a post shared on X, Shreyanka said Kohli was the reason she started watching cricket and the former India captain appreciating her bowling was an incredible feeling for her.
"Started watching cricket cos of him. Grew up dreaming to be like him. And last night, had the moment of my life. Virat said, “Hi Shreyanka, well bowled". He actually knows my name 😬😬😬," Shreyanka Patil wrote on X.
Shreyanka Patil, 21, won both the Purple Cap for taking the most wickets in the WPL season - 13 from eight matches at 12.08 -- and also the Emerging Player of the Year award. She started slow and got hit for a few runs in the first half of the tournament but came back with wicket-taking spells in crunch phases in the latter half.
"They keep saying 'Ee sala cup namde' and we got it" - Shreyanka Patil
Her contributions shone through in the final too as she picked up the important scalps of Meg Lanning, Minnu Mani, and Taniya Bhatia in the first innings. She returned with figures of 4/12 as RCB restricted Delhi Capitals to 113 runs before chasing it down with three balls to spare.
"They keep saying 'Ee sala cup namde' and we got it," she said after the match. "That's it guys, it is for the fans... Day in and day out we put our hard work. We felt like family. We did not know Luke (Williams, head coach) much. During the last game that we won against Mumbai, he had tears. We are looking forward to continuing this."
Virat Kohli, who was out of action for a couple of months, will feature in IPL 2024, which begins on Friday, March 22.